Culture Gets Cooler
Museums, theaters, and even symphonies are luring new audiences by upping their “hip” quotient. BY ELAINE GLUSAC
 The house -- all three stages, actually -- is dark at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, their curtains rung down an hour earlier. But the theater is humming with activity. Outside on the “endless bridge,” a cantilever observation platform over the Mississippi River designed, like the entire theater complex, by French architect Jean Nouvel, smartly dressed champagne-swillers are toasting the skyline. Inside, the fourth-floor lobby bar is thronged with orders as patrons fan out to view the backstage traffic through blue-tinted floor-to-ceiling windows. And on street level, a jazz trio is entertaining the post-show crowd at Cue, the Guthrie’s in-house fine-dining restaurant.
“I’ve always believed that one of the things that made theater seem elitist was because it opened for performances and then threw the audience out straightaway afterward,” said Guthrie director Joe Dowling. “Now we’ve got WiFi, restaurants, bars, and cafes, reasons for people to come here all day long.”
The Guthrie isn’t the only cultural institution honing its social side. In May, the Art Institute of Chicago will debut a new wing for its modern and contemporary art collections, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, including a bridge to neighboring Millennium Park and a trendy restaurant. The Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans holds weekly concerts in its atrium. The Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas offers seasonal yoga classes amid its artwork and a “NasherSALON” series of discussions on subjects like architecture. The Dallas Museum of Art is featuring the blockbuster Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of Pharaohs exhibit, and the Dallas Arboretum offers summer concerts. The Washington Ballet offers “beer and ballet” evenings to its junior patrons group, combining rehearsals and refreshments in its studio.
 In part, these innovative projects help pad the bottom line at a time when arts funding and charitable endowments are threatened by a stalling economy. But like the Guthrie, most got underway in an era before the stock market slide, blazing trails for institutions hoping to develop new audiences with unexpected programming while maximizing the use of their assets.
“Competition for our attention has ratcheted up our level of what it takes to get us to talk about things,” said Marian Salzman, a trend-spotter with Porter Novelli in New York who is credited with coining the term “metro-sexual.” “We need to be titillated, engaged, entertained, turned on to overcome that base level of cynicism.”
Observers trace the trend to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, the 1997 show-stopping modern art space designed by Frank Gehry, which made the once-bedraggled Spanish industrial town a must-visit city for those with an appetite for culture and travel. It was a seminal “look at me” moment, inspiring high-design exhibition halls around the world, from Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum with a recent addition by Daniel Libeskind to San Francisco’s new California Academy of Sciences by, again, Renzo Piano. The latter features an undulating green roof, a four-story indoor rain forest, and a cafe backed by chef Charles Phan of the city’s famed Slanted Door restaurant.
“Museums often are branded as old, ivory-tower, stuffy institutions. They’re really trying to put their best foot forward to engage the younger generation, who expect a lot more than an exhibition, but to see music, take a class, or engage in a workshop,” said Audrey Boguchwal of New York, who helps curate FIGMENT, an annual art event on the city’s Governors Island that includes an artist-designed miniature-golf course and artwork the audience helps collectively create.
 Short of investing millions in infrastructure, events help cultural institutions crank up the energy and reel in new, sometimes younger crowds. Collectors’ shows like Art Basel Miami Beach, where luxe marketer Cartier recently commissioned filmmaker David Lynch to bring his moody sensibility to its showcase dome, have helped point the way to museum after-hours parties such as the weekly soirees at the Seattle Art Museum featuring music and alternative tours led by local dancers, artists, and critics.
Symphonies have long stretched their appeal to nonclassical fans by adopting “pops” series devoted to lighter fare. Generating stardust of their own, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra premiered works by actor Anthony Hopkins late last year.
Similarly seeking crossover fans, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, sponsors a concert series tied to exhibition themes, such as “Beats of Basquiat,” a 2006 performance by Grand Master Flash inspired by the paintings of Jean-Michel Basquiat that drew an audience of 7,000. Museum officials credit 700 new memberships to the series.
Theater offers perhaps the most natural stage for post-show mingling, something “Fuerza Bruta,” an open-run New York show from an Argentinean-led theater troupe, has capitalized on. A spectacle of dance, performance, and technology, the show concludes by turning the warehouse-like space into a club with DJ-spun tunes and cocktail specials.
Rubbing elbows with fellow patrons has long been a part of the entr’acte in Europe, according to Hedy Weiss, theater critic for the Chicago Sun-Times. “When I’m in London, the best place to be is the lobby of the National Theatre,” said Weiss. A bookstore, bar, and restaurants help animate the National’s public spaces. “There’s a sense of engagement there.” And that’s precisely what successful cultural venues are achieving.
WHERE ARTS COME ALIVE
ART BASEL MIAMI BEACH. The next art-meets-scene event: December 3 to 6. www.artbaselmiamibeach.com
ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO. The new Modern Wing, opening in May, houses art and a trendy eatery. (312) 443-3600, www.artic.edu
CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, SAN FRANCISCO. Walk the “living” green roof. (415) 379-8000, www.calacademy.org
DALLAS ARBORETUM. Outdoor summer concerts let you enjoy music among the blooms. (214) 616-6500, www.dallasarboretum.org
DALLAS
MUSEUM OF ART. Cool Late Night events; get tickets in advance for the
popular King Tut exhibit. (214) 922-1200, dallasmuseumofart.org
DALLAS
SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA. Not afraid to break from Brahms, the DSO has
performed with the Beach Boys. (214) 692-0203, www.dallassymphony.com
FIGMENT,
NEW YORK. Play artist-designed miniature golf at the annual art event
on Governors Island, June 12 to 14. www.figmentnyc.org
FUERZA
BRUTA, NEW YORK. The wordless spectacle of sound, movement, and
technology breaks into a party after the shows. Also in São Paolo,
Brazil. www.lookupnyc.com
GUTHRIE THEATER, MINNEAPOLIS. Take an iPod tour of the theater, dine, and see a show. (612) 377-2224, www.guthrietheater.org
MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS, HOUSTON. Exhibition-themed concerts draw big acts and crowds. (713) 639-7300, www.mfah.org
NASHER
SCULPTURE CENTER, DALLAS. An active event schedule includes chats by
celebrity chefs like Wolfgang Puck. (214) 242-5100,
www.nashersculpturecenter.org
NATIONAL
THEATRE, LONDON. Browse books, dine, people-watch pre- or post-curtain.
011-44-20-7-452-3000, www.nationaltheatre.org.uk
OGDEN
MUSEUM OF SOUTHERN ART, NEW ORLEANS. Ogden After Hours concerts have
featured Ivan Neville. Listen or look around the galleries. (504)
539-9600, www.ogdenmuseum.org
ROYAL
ONTARIO MUSEUM, TORONTO. Daniel Libeskind’s “crystal” wing includes the
trendy restaurant c5. (416) 586-8000, www.rom.on.ca
SEATTLE ART MUSEUM. Thursday and Friday evenings after-hours events include live music. (206) 654-3100, www.seattleartmuseum.org
THE
WASHINGTON BALLET, WASHINGTON, D.C. Ballet set to Elton John music, May
13 to 17. (202) 362-3606, www.washingtonballet.org -- E.G.
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