Dear [log in to unmask]

   There are some for profit museum-y type spaces, the SONY thing in NYC
   comes to mind, the New Jersey Children's museum too.  For better or
   worse, the world has arranged itself so that the mandates of museums,
   even in the widest sense, require subsidy.  Even the most
   block-bustery, marketing buzz word, service providing,
   community-responsive, focused-collecting museum you can describe is
   best off established as a not for profit.

   Just imagine trying to line up investors who are trying for the best
   return on their hard-earned (or even ill-gained) capital, and trying
   to interest them in a museum!  Investments are generally judged in
   terms different from philanthropy.  And while doing that, the people
   trying to run this for profit museum will be unable to turn to
   traditional sources of philanthropy because of the institution's for
   profit status.

   In this, museums are not too different from universities and private
   schools, and I would have said hospitals, but that is changing as we
   speak.

   In Europe, and America as well, there are quite a number of
   "private" museums that rely on an endowment or some other non-public
   source of subsidy (other than the tax breaks that make the endowment
   possible) Maybe someone somewhere will try to run a museum as a
   for-profit set-up.  I'd be curious to see if it's possible.

   Anyway, nobody is bitching about salaries to get support from the NEA.
   That game is definitely not worth the candle.

   I see by your handle that you are involved in museum design.  Who are
   you?

   Eric Siegel
   [log in to unmask]