Regarding the whole discussion about getting Gen-X into the museum:

        I have two distinct opinions on the subject; one being that it's
probably more effective to give younger kids museum experiences, thereby
ensuring that even if they do take a few years off from visiting during
their teens and twenty-somethings, they are very likely to return during
middle age (I base this on all the studies done showing that early museum
experiences tend to predict museum attendance as adults).
        My other thought is that yes, it is very dangerous to define a
whole age group by one psychographic profile, as one of the major cola
companies found out when trying to aggressively market "OK Cola" to
"Gen-Xers".  I am a Gen-Xer myself, but as many other people have
mentioned about themselves, I don't really identify with the slacker
characterization.  Nor do most of the people in my age group that I know.
We're all hard at work in graduate school and too busy to worry about what
we're "supposed" to be interested in.  Yes, by all means go out and talk
to people in the age groups you are targeting (although Gen-X is, I
believe, defined as ages 14-25.  Try pinning that one down!), but there is
a danger I see in all the eager 20-something museum devotees offering
their consulting services-- they (and I) probably don't represent the
people you are talking about drawing into the museum.  We have to take
great pains to divorce ourselves from thinking like "museum people" when
designing programming for the public, and this should be a valid check
when dealing with any age group.
        Sorry this rant got so long!

                                                Melissa Washburn