Hey........What's Going on Here?

This is what Gatz has to say:

I went to the Da Young Museum in San Francisco last Thursday (8/19/10) to see the 100 pieces of the Impressionists. Now this show is not like any other art showing in America this year or any year. All these pieces come from the Musee D'Orsay in Paris. (In case you don't know the Musee D'Orsay is second only to the Louvre in fame) They are on loan from the Musee D'Orsay only because that museum is undergoing renovations this summer. Normally, you would have to fly to Paris to see these famous works.

The museum was packed (as you would expect) especially so because it's near the end of summer and the show closes September 6th. When my appointed time came I went in and was fully surrounded by art lovers mulling over the Manet's, Monet's, Sisley's, Caillebot's etc. However, in the midst of all the claustrophobic ton of people I noticed something disturbing.....90% of all the people there were over the age of 45. Most were my age or older. I looked and looked but could find NO younger people there. Only a handful and they were kids or early teens with their parents. Not one person.....I mean literally not one person 18-30 was seeing the show or waiting in line. HEY.....WHAT"S GOING ON HERE?

I also went to the Toulouse Latrec show in San Diego about 2 1/2 weeks ago and it was the same exact thing. All older people, no twenty or thirty somethings.

This bothers me alot. Has a cultural gap been growing and I am just now noticing it? Do young people not care about art and culture? Have young people concluded that art is their facebook page, their twitter accounts, their e-mail and texting? Why wouldn't art, music, dance be important? I will say this, when I went to the Metropolitan Opera last December there were twenty somethings and thiry somethings in the crowd. But something is definitely wrong here overall. I'm worried, I drove 500 miles to see this art show that lasted 1 1/2 hours and not a single twenty or thirty something person from SF (or anywhere) was there.

I truely hope we aren't headed to (or God forbid already in) a cultural wasteland where Van Gogh has been replaced by You Tube.