I was feeling a bit fiesty today and looking for a fight..but a troll!  I
agree with everything you said except that!  You summed up quite nicely
exactly the situation we are in.  I too know of no museum professional who
wants to keep people out of their museum either.  I apologize for playing
devils advocate and pressing butons, but another unfortunate result of the
$admission$ issue is the appearance of elitism by institutions that by their
very nature are suspect anyway.  I have had this argument with lots of
people both in and out of the museum world and find myself defending both
sides depending on who I am talking to.  It is no wonder that Thomas Kincaid
and empty nostalgia are considered high art by our society when museums
APPEAR to cater only to the wealthy.  In my opinion artists are as culpable
as museums and the rest of the industry. For years we have been making "art
for artists" and have left the rest of society behind.


At 11:41 AM 02/25/2001 -0600, James Tichgelaar wrote:
>OK, I hate responding to trolls, but the other part of the message bugged
me more.  I know of no museum professional who
>wants to keep people out of their museum.  I am desperately trying to get
more people in to my museum.  It is unfortunate
>that tax cuts and the shifting of priorities in corporations (who have
dramatically increased dividends and executive
>compensation while salaries and benefits have fallen when adjusted for
inflation, along with the aforementioned cut in
>sponsership to smaller non-profits in outlying communities) has reduced the
available money from those who can afford to
>pay for education, health, welfare, and other social goods.   While it is
argued that it is more "fair" for everyone to pay for
>their own share of supporting institutions such as museums through
admissions, the unfortunate result is that those who
>most need access to educational services offered by museums and other
non-profits are cut out by the need to charge for
>services that were once free or low cost.  Look for more institutions to
charge for their services if the Bush tax cut gets
>rammed through congeress. (Does anyone remember the last time we tried to
cut taxes, increase military spending, and
>balance the budget?  Is it only a coincidence that that was when the
redistribution of wealth towards the top accellerated
>in the United States?)
>
>James H Tichgelaar
>Registrar, Arkansas State University Museum
>http://museum.astate.edu
>
>"All we ever wanted was everything.  All we ever got was cold."
>
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