In May, 14 MTU students from Industrial Heritage and Archaeology and other programs, a visiting Wayne State student, and two community members joined Drs. Mark Rhodes and Kathryn Hannum on MTU’s first “Wales: Community Transformations” Study Abroad program. The 16-day program explores how parks, museums, and historic sites can heal economic and environmental scars left behind by industrialization.
In the weeks leading up to the trip, the Welsh Government announced massive budget cuts to the national museum system, which Dr. Rhodes researches. This presented a unique opportunity. Because the program visits all seven national museums in Wales, the group could track their economic spending.
Students gather around a guide at the base of one of the Blaenavon Ironworks’ six blast furnaces during a guided tour.
Students recorded everything they spent inside and outside of each museum and analyzed that data. They found that while the museums are free to enter, the amount spent within each exceeded the average that visitors are willing to pay for museum entry in the UK. By drawing people in, centering a community, and communicating cultural and community values through the museum’s interpretations, they argue that free museums generate these regional economic and social values while remaining accessible to all.
The findings of this research have been published in the peer-reviewed journal, Welsh Economic Review, published by Cardiff University Press.