> -----Original Message-----
> From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
> Behalf Of [log in to unmask]
> Sent: April 28, 2000 19:58
...
> Problems arise over control of wedding parties, not so
> much the weddings themselves, but subsequent receptions
> which introduce food, litter, etc.  In many cases,
> museums and historic places start out renting space for
> weddings and receptions.

****** Our museum has an outdoor village as well as some modern buildings
housing office, workshops,  storage etc. Yes, problems do occur over control
of weddings at a museum. E.g.:
* The janitor trying to get the guests, after they have had some drinks, to
leave at the appointed hour (a hefty deposit in advance to cover staff
overtime incurred or damage helps to get the wedding organizers on your side
in clearing the site at proper time).
* Litter, especially confetti (we ban this but some people still do it) and
empty (or half full) beer cans and wineglasses left in the most unusual
places.
* One comes under pressure to have adequate lighting for night-time safety
of people walking about, and this does not always fit the Curator's research
on what was authentic for the place and time period(s) depicted.
* In rooms with display cases in or near places where food and drink is
served, people INEVITABLY put (and spill) wineglasses on top of display
cabinets. Note to designers of such cases -- because of this do NOT put vent
holes in the tops of Plexi (Perspex to our Brit readers) display cases that
stand in the middle of a room. As a Curator I don't want to see food and
drink anywhere near artifacts but ...

> Then as conservation standards improve and professional awareness
increases, this
> source of revenue is dropped...

***** Ah, if that were only so. I find that there is MORE pressure to
accommodate such fund-raisers for museums in general especially as
government funding tends to shrink.

***** Sun Young Myung just enquired about "the average portion of earned
income and contributed income when the total revenue is $500K." In our case
our municipal tax based portion is about 60% and our self-generated revenue
is about 40%. Our political masters would like to see these two figures
reversed so as to lighten the load on the city tax payers, and for the
museum to move to more of a 'user-pay' situation. Self-generated revenue for
us includes things such as gate admissions, school programs, birthday
parties, gift shop sales, room rentals for meetings, site rental for
corporate events, weddings, rentals for filming of movies/TV shows/music
videos, etc.

***** It may be easier to justify eliminating money generating activities
that conflict with museum ideals in the case of a museum that is of the
indoor type, one that everyone recognizes as being a "museum", but harder
for outdoor museums to justify where it is difficult to get people in
general to think of it as a "real museum". This is not meant as a criticism
or gripe session, simply as an observation of a fact of life that is by no
means unique to this institution.

Colin Macgregor Stevens,
Curator,
Burnaby Village Museum,
Burnaby, BC, CANADA

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