Susan,

You've received many excellent and helpful responses. Here's another
aspect you can come from. The historic home where I previously worked
recently had an appraisal of the collections done. With the report in hand
and 'values' now attached to the objects on display, the curator had some
ammunition to counter those who wanted to have the 'big donors' be able to
wander the house with food/drink. The compromise was that they could have
drinks and hor dourves in the main hall and one of the porches. The
collections staff stayed after (we were salaried, so no compensation
really) to make sure drinks stayed out of the main room. Since their Gala
was for the 'big donors', we had a few choice pieces that we mentioned to
donors the approximate appraisal value of. Then of course, we slipped in
how that's why we have rules of no food or drink in the house - the
objects are so valuable that it would be 'their' money to replace /
conserve the objects they dropped food on.

Usually once donors know how valuable the collection is, and how much
money they'll be paying out for cleaning up messes rather than getting new
projects done, they'll tend to want to enforce the no eating/drinking
policies. :)

Hope that helps!
Bridgette Kelly

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