Editing Museum (section)

===Financial uses===
{{See also|Economic theory of museums}}
[[File:The Titanic Signature Project, Belfast (16) - geograph.org.uk - 2148869.jpg|thumb|Construction of Titanic Belfast in 2010]]In recent years, some cities have turned to museums as an avenue for economic development or rejuvenation. This is particularly true in the case of postindustrial cities.<ref name=":0">{{cite book |title=Do Museums Still Need Objects? |last=Conn |first=Steven |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=2010 |location=Philadelphia |page=17}}</ref> Examples of museums fulfilling these economic roles exist around the world. For example, the [[Guggenheim Museum Bilbao]] was built in [[Bilbao]], Spain, in a move by the Basque regional government to revitalize the dilapidated old port area of that city. The Basque government agreed to pay $100 million for the construction of the museum, a price tag that caused many Bilbaoans to protest against the project.<ref>{{cite news |title=A Gleaming New Guggenheim for Grimy Bilbao |last=Riding |first=Alan |date=24 June 1997 |work=[[The New York Times]] |page=C9}}</ref> Nonetheless, over 1.1 million people visited the museum in 2015, indicating it appeared to have paid off for the local government despite local backlash; key to this is the large demographic of foreign visitors to the museum, with 63% of the visitors residing outside of Spain and thus feeding foreign investment straight into Bilbao.<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://prensa.guggenheim-bilbao.es/src/uploads/2016/01/NP_Balance-2015_ES.pdf|title = Guggenheim Bilbao Annual Report 2015|access-date = 20 January 2016|website = Guggenheim Bilbao|archive-date = 27 January 2016|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160127030943/http://prensa.guggenheim-bilbao.es/src/uploads/2016/01/NP_Balance-2015_ES.pdf|url-status = live}}</ref> A similar project to that undertaken in Bilbao was the [[Titanic Belfast]], built on disused shipyards in [[Belfast]], Northern Ireland, incidentally for the same price as the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and by the same architect, [[Frank Gehry]], in time for the 100th anniversary of ''[[Titanic]]''{{'}}s maiden voyage in 2012. Initially expecting modest visitor numbers of 425,000 annually, first year visitor numbers reached over 800,000, with almost 60% coming from outside Northern Ireland.<ref>{{Cite news|title = Northern Ireland Focus: Titanic Success Raises Hopes For Tourism|last = Smyth|first = Jamie|date = 16 June 2013|work = Financial Times}}</ref> In the United States, similar projects include the 81,000 square foot [[Taubman Museum of Art]] in [[Roanoke, Virginia]] and [[The Broad]] in [[Los Angeles]].

Museums being used as a cultural economic driver by city and local governments has proven to be controversial among museum activists and local populations alike. Public protests have occurred in numerous cities which have tried to employ museums in this way. While most subside if a museum is successful, as happened in Bilbao, others continue especially if a museum struggles to attract visitors. The Taubman Museum of Art is an example of an expensive museum (eventually $66 million) that attained little success and continues to have a low endowment for its size.<ref>{{Cite news|title = Start-Up Success Isn't Enough to Found a Museum|last = Wallis|first = David|date = 20 March 2014|work = [[The New York Times]]|page = F6}}</ref> Some museum activists see this method of museum use as a deeply flawed model for such institutions. Steven Conn, one such museum proponent, believes that "to ask museums to solve our political and economic problems is to set them up for inevitable failure and to set us (the visitor) up for inevitable disappointment."<ref name=":0" />