Could Pittsburgh support more museums? (York, Carnegie: 2013, living, costs)

[fleetiebelle]

Originally Posted by I_Like_Spam

Are you a school teacher accompanying groups of 7th and 8th graders?

No, I love art and culture and I've always been a avid museum-goer. It's what I care about instead of sports, I guess. We have great cultural resources in this city, and it always surprises me when grown people say that they haven't been to a museum since a middle school field trip.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

In reality how many local people go to a museum more than a couple times? Museums are considered development for tourism.

Originally Posted by fleetiebelle

I do. I go the the Frick, the History Center, the Warhol, CMoA, and the Mattress Factory each at least once or twice a year.

Agreed. These assets can be enjoyed by visitors and residents alike. I've been to the National Aviary several times now over the past year and would like to return. I've been to the Heinz History Center once and want to return. Once I actually get a day off from both of my jobs I'd like to just wander aimlessly around the Carnegie Museums in Oakland.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by North Beach Person

In reality how many local people go to a museum more than a couple times? Museums are considered development for tourism.

Museums are pretty popular around here, particularly in Allegheny County:

Arts Attendance Rates

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

A local "Pop Culture Hall of Fame" seems like something that could be part of the Heinz History Museum. The idea of a general Pop Culture Hall of Fame strikes me as muddled--pop culture includes way too much within its scope. Honestly, I hope we move away from this "birthplace of pop culture" nonsense sooner rather than later, and certainly we shouldn't invest anything like a new museum in the notion..

I think a general pop culture museum is ideal just for that reason. As it covers so much, the museum can always remain fresh with new topics for exhibit. And acquiring the stuff either by purchase or loan is a lot cheaper than buying a Van Gogh. Pittsburgh can have a core exhibit that shows Pittsburgh's contribution to pop culture, rotate in other items of American pop culture, and focus on special exhibit topics. It can be as silly as old stamped metal school lunch boxes and Beatlemania.

[BrianTH]

But how will you market the idea of making a special trip to see stuff you see all the time everywhere?

[I_Like_Spam]

Why not an Immigrant Museum- to celebrate and document the life of the immigrants that came over to the Pittsburgh area in the late 19th/early 20th century to build the town by working in the mills?

I think on Talbot Avenue in Braddock might be a good place as it still has the working steel mill with ET in the background.

An authentic original home in lower Braddock could be bought and dressed up like it would be for an immigrant family coming to America back then. Braddock has enough urban prairie, that getting adjacent land for parking and a bit of new construction should be doable without displacing very many people.

Enough people would be interested, and the sons and daughters of some of the immigrants are still with us to contribute to authenticity, and perhaps artifacts still around from the bygone era.

Pittsburgh already opens up Clayton which can show people how the wealthier folks lived during that time, a museum for the hoi polloi could be an attraction.

[BrianTH]

I think a blue-collar immigrant museum is a great idea.

[andyt4579]

Originally Posted by I_Like_Spam

Why not an Immigrant Museum- to celebrate and document the life of the immigrants that came over to the Pittsburgh area in the late 19th/early 20th century to build the town by working in the mills?

I think on Talbot Avenue in Braddock might be a good place as it still has the working steel mill with ET in the background.

An authentic original home in lower Braddock could be bought and dressed up like it would be for an immigrant family coming to America back then. Braddock has enough urban prairie, that getting adjacent land for parking and a bit of new construction should be doable without displacing very many people.

Enough people would be interested, and the sons and daughters of some of the immigrants are still with us to contribute to authenticity, and perhaps artifacts still around from the bygone era.

Pittsburgh already opens up Clayton which can show people how the wealthier folks lived during that time, a museum for the hoi polloi could be an attraction.

Sounds like something Rivers of Steel would do for Homestead.

Always wanted to see something pop up in Braddock for the F+I War battle and Whiskey Rebellion, even though the land has been compromised a good bit. Still think something more than an exhibit at the Free Library would be doable.

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

But how will you market the idea of making a special trip to see stuff you see all the time everywhere?

I don't follow. Stuff comes and goes. That's the nature of fads and pop culture. Metal lunch box themes reflected their time. They don't even make metal lunch boxes anymore. And do you think Beatlemania is still with us?

[MathmanMathman]

Originally Posted by I_Like_Spam

Why not an Immigrant Museum- to celebrate and document the life of the immigrants that came over to the Pittsburgh area in the late 19th/early 20th century to build the town by working in the mills?

I think on Talbot Avenue in Braddock might be a good place as it still has the working steel mill with ET in the background.

An authentic original home in lower Braddock could be bought and dressed up like it would be for an immigrant family coming to America back then. Braddock has enough urban prairie, that getting adjacent land for parking and a bit of new construction should be doable without displacing very many people.

Enough people would be interested, and the sons and daughters of some of the immigrants are still with us to contribute to authenticity, and perhaps artifacts still around from the bygone era.

Pittsburgh already opens up Clayton which can show people how the wealthier folks lived during that time, a museum for the hoi polloi could be an attraction.

Isn't that what the Heinz History Center is for? It should be an extension of that.