UNIVERSITA’ DEGLI STUDI DI URBINO “CARLO BO” – FACOLTA’ DI LINGUE E LETTERATURE STRANIERE
Laurea in Lingue e Cultura per l’Impresa (CL4)
2nd YEAR ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION & COMPOSITION JAN 2007
1)
Read the following text and answer the questions:
To draw funds and crowds, museums are fast becoming brands. One example of this is London’s
Tate Modern, the world’s busiest modern-art museum. Right now it’s packed with people, there are
lines for everything: snack bars, restrooms, ticket counters. The atmosphere here seems more like a
pop concert or an amusement park. It’s hard to believe that just a decade ago, the building was
decaying and empty, a massive eyesore just across the Thames from St. Paul’s Cathedral. After a
$200 million overhaul, including a redesign by architects Herzog & de Meuron, Tate Modern is
now one of the city’s must-see destinations, attracting more than twice the 1.8 million annual
visitors originally predicted. Last July, the museum announced a $400 million expansion plan that
it hopes will increase its size by 60 % by 2012.
But the Tate Modern isn’t alone in exceeding its own expectations. Attendance at Paris’ Louvre
Museum last year reached a record 7.5 million visitors. Museum visits hit a whopping 100 million
in Germany in 2005, while Madrid’s three major museums—the Prado, the Reina Sofia and the
Thyssen-Bornemisza--recently underwent costly upgrades to handle increasing throngs of visitors.
“We are seeing a boom time for museums,” says John Kiefer, senior consultant at AEA Consulting,
a firm that specializes in advising museums. Fuelling the boom is a new savvy for the marketing
and brand-building techniques employed by big business. For example, Tate Modern and its sister
museums recently marketed a line of wall paints through a chain of home improvement stores. “For
a long time, the opinion toward marketing and commercialism from curators was quite negative,”
says Paal Mork, head of communications at the Norsk Folkemuseum in Oslo. That attitude, he
says, is now ancient history.
Cash from governments and foundations is dwindling, and that forces museums to bring in more
free-spending visitors to survive. The original Tate Gallery—now Tate Britain—got approximately
90% of its revenue from government funding 20 years ago. Now the group gets 40%. Elsewhere in
Europe the situation is similar. Corporate sponsorship has filled some of the shortfall, but in return
for their donations, companies expect to see crowds. How are Tate and other museums staying
competitive in this new era ? Here are five rules:
RULE 1: Believe in, but respect the blockbuster
The most powerful marketing weapon
museums wield is the blockbuster show. Once-in-a-lifetime retrospectives of artists can entice
people to line up for miles to get in. But weapons can misfire, and some critics think that these
megashows have skewed museums priorities. Is a museum’s purpose to enlighten and educate the
public or to stage must-see entertainments ? The real answer is both, according to Johanna
Waterous, museum collaborator.
RULE 2: Get creative, not cute
The economics of blockbusters are risky. A large show can
cost from $1 to $3 million to mount and requires publicity to succeed, so commercial tie-ins are
increasingly common. Museums try to avoid promotions which might turn the work of art into a
parody of itself. They don’t want to belittle the art or over-commercialize it.
RULE 3: Multimedia is not optional
Some museums are turning to TV to promote shows and
the use of high technology has proved helpful in wooing the digital generation as well.
RULE 4: Architecture matters
The Guggenheim Bilbao started the craze in 1997. The gritty,
regional Spanish port city became an international art mecca virtually overnight when it unveiled
Frank Gehry’s amazing curvy, titanium-covered structure. Last year it attracted nearly a million
visitors and the final economic payoff for the region’s GDP totalled $238 million.
RULE 5 : Content is still king
It’s the rare museum today that can avoid upping its marketing
game, but they do exist. Florence’s Uffizi Gallery, for example, with works by Da Vinci,
Michelangelo and Caravaggio does little to promote itself yet draws 1.5 million visitors annually.
Museums that fail or lag behind more successful ones, often have problems that no sales job can fix:
lack of content, bad locations, unrealistic business plans, poor leadership.
From “Time”
INSTRUCTIONS (N.B. Marks will be deducted if you fail to comply with these instructions !)
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Time allowed: 3 hours
Dictionary allowed: mono- and bilingual
Write all answers on the blank answer-sheet provided, and not on this question-sheet
Print your surname and first name in the top right hand corner of each sheet of paper
Write clearly, leaving narrow margins to the left and right of your text, and do both parts of the paper (1 and 2).
Remember to support your answers with explanations and reference to the text.
Use your own words where possible. If you quote directly from the text, use inverted commas
1. What was the Tate Modern like ten years ago ?
2. How many visitors does the Tate Modern attract every year ?
3. How have museum curators’ opinions toward marketing changed ?
4. Why do museums have to attract more visitors willing to spend a lot ?
5. The author says “weapons can misfire”. What does this expression mean and what is it referring
to in the text ?
6. Explain the rule “architecture matters”.
7. “Museums that fail often have problems no sales job can fix.” Explain.
8. Find exact synonyms in the text for each of the following:
a) throngs
b) dwindling c) “end result”
9.Explain exactly what the following expressions refer to in the text:
a) “that” (line 21);
b) “it” (line 40) ;
c) “they” (line 44 ).
Write a composition (about 250 words) on the following title:
A. In a recent article, Michael Henderson, an arts columnist at London’s Daily Telegraph, called
the Tate Modern an “unappealing art factory that we are supposed to admire because it attracts so
many visitors.” Is a museum’s purpose to enlighten and educate the public or to stage must-see
entertainments ? Ms. Waterous says both and asks: “How can you educate people if you don’t
bring in an audience ?” Income from blockbuster shows, says Tate director Nicholas Serota, also
enable museums to mount smaller, more scholarly shows.
What is your opinion of the situation described ? Can you give some examples from your own
experience ? What are some of the problems involved in managing museums ? What do you think
should be done to improve the situation ?
READING COMPREHENSION
SAMPLE ANSWER KEY
1. Ten years ago, the Tate Modern was “decaying and empty, a massive eyesore just across the
Thames from St. Paul’s Cathedral.”
2. Every year the Tate Modern attracts more than twice the 1.8 million visitors originally predicted
(about 3.6 million people).
3. Museum curators used to think marketing and commercialism were quite negative and now that
attitude has changed completely.
4. Museums have to attract more visitors willing to spend a lot because cash from governments
and foundations has greatly diminished.
5. “Weapons can misfire” means that weapons can fail to work and actually end up doing the
opposite. It refers to the fact that mega-shows have skewed museums priorities, changing from
enlightening and educating the public to staging “must-see entertainments.”
6. The rule “architecture matters” means that sometimes the building itself becomes a tourist
attraction, for example the Guggenheim Bilbao became an “art mecca” when it unveiled Frank
Gehry’s amazing curvy, titanium-covered structure.
7. “Museums that fail often have problems no sales job can fix.” This means that museums with a
lack of content, bad locations, unrealistic business plans, or poor leadership cannot become
attractions no matter how much they spend on marketing.
8.
a) crowds
b) decreasing
c) payoff
a) “that” (line 21) refers to the fact that cash from governments and foundations is dwindling.
b) “it” (line 40) refers to Bilbao, the regional Spanish port city.
c) “they” (line 44 )refers to museums where content is king, those who don’t have to play the
marketing game
9.