I wrote a book in 1993 entitled: Founding a museum: the first steps. In
that, I stressed the basics, one of which is that there has to be a
collection. Funding a museum can be seen as a constant expense where
there is not enough money to cover everything. While there are grants
for programming, and some for operations, capital funding is very
difficult--and competition for grant monies can be very stiff. Overall,
I would ask:
     what are you trying to do? (mission statement)
     what do you have that will illustrate what you are trying to do?
(collections)
     who is your audience?
     how will you pay for those expenses not covered by admissions?
     what will you do with you collections IF the museum fails?
     what community-interactive programming will you offer?

Starting a new museum can be a tough, discouraging, difficult, lengthy
process--but not impossible.

Dave Wells
Quinault National Museum Project
821 Kaiser RD NW 6A
Olympia WA 98502-2621

Charlotte Robinson wrote:
>
> I'm tossing around the idea of starting a local music museum and I was
> wondering if anyone can offer any advice on where to find prospective
> backers or partners, or any general advice.