Home theaters, art museums, and "authenticity"

I learned from "Leisure in America" (which captured the data from the U.S. Census Bureau in 2005) that between the time I was a happy pre-schooler in the early 1950s Midwest, and the time I got on the radar screen of AARP, the average amount of "house space" per US citizen increased by 250% or so.

So what goes on in all that extra space?

A few weeks back I had an epiphany of sorts along these lines - one that connected the past and future in a way at once provocative and disturbing for the future of symphonies, theaters, and art museums.

It began with lunch next door at the Garrett-Jacobs Mansion. Going to the lower-level ballroom restaurant, one passes the "theater," and just beyond it is the "art gallery." Both are ca. 1915 John Russell Pope expansion features on the original Stanford White "Garrett Mansion" of 1884.

All of which is to say that 100 years ago or so the Garretts (and others of their social standing and wealth) owned their own "art galleries," and had their own "home theaters."

Culture took place in the home, so to speak.

Well, I came back from lunch and met with friend who knows absolutely everything there is to know about what is certain to be the next Big Thing in technology: 3-D movies, videos, and television sets.

A whole new generation of 3-D movies is just around the corner. And how long after that before the folks who brought the Metropolitan Opera to movie theaters across the country will add the third dimension? And then, Broadway Musicals.

Within five years, each of us will at least know someone with a 3-D television in their "home theater." Imagine that: a 102-inch Samsung 3-D screen, with a sound system to match, bringing all that is current in the performing arts in New York, Paris, and Beijing. No parking worries, no annoying voices over your shoulder, and, most important of all, you receive your art experience on your own terms, when you want it, not when the performers want to give it to you.

And then, imagine the Vatican Museums and the Hermitage in 3-D.

This vision of the future raises fundamental questions for those of us dedicated to the public presentation of art. What does "authenticity" mean, when it involves the art experience? And does our brain really care? Will the value-added of social engagement at public cultural venues trump the convenience of the at-home simulacrum? And most important, how should we strategically manage our cultural institutions in a way that is both attentive to these sorts of mega-trends, and sensitive to our public service mission?

Or, do we need to worry at all?

These are precisely the sorts of questions I hope we will raise in our first CARA Convening, November 15-16. And ones that I hope you will all feel free to debate in advance through the medium of this blog.