>There appears to be a tricky dance museums managers must
>learn to handle in order to maintain the integrity of their
>institution, but at the same time, not wanting to bite the
>hand that feeds them.  This pressure seems to be more acute
>for smaller museums which have little non-governmental
>funding, compared to the larger museums, which have high
>enough profiles to attract private sector endowments and
>other forms of sponsorship

"Tricky dance" is probably a very accurate description of
what museum directors do in this matter.  We're smallish in
size and almost completely funded by the state legislature
through "general fund" appropriations.  Our Board is made
up, largely, of political appointees (hey, it's the law -
don't tell me to fix it, the tax payers like it that way).
Much consideration is made of "public" opinion in setting
our budget, which is perhaps the ultimate establishment of
priorities for the museum.

I can't speak for the larger museums with non-government
funds, but I think you're right.  Reductions and threatened
reductions of federal funding in response to conservative
rages about art and WWII history exhibits in the US also
seems part of the public vs private difference.

Chris Dill

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C. L. Dill, Museum Director
State Historical Society of North Dakota
612 East Boulevard
Bismarck  ND  58505-0830
P: (701)328-2666
F: (701)328-3710
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Visit our Web site at: http://www.state.nd.us/hist/
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