I'm not a pro but rather a museum go-er. Funding is the key. And it needs
to be upfront. Right now my town, Baltimore, is facing the closure of
several good museums. We have a fair # of museums that do o.k., so the
thought was that alot of museums will do even better. The big killers here
have been location, money, location, and money. We have seeing great
increases in tourism amidst the rumored closings. If it "ain't" where the
people are the people "ain't" going to it.
And if the money isn't there when you open, it won,t be there in 6 mos.
either.
Again, all of the above was an uneducated opinion, but hopefully of some
help.
Good Luck, a Steel Industry mus. does sound good, I can just see the
Victory Ships rolling off the line now!
Reid
<Big Snip>
> "If you build it they will come" does not work with museums. You are
correct
> in that museums do not survive without subsidies of some sort (any
> exceptions out there?), usually a wide variety of sources.  (This is out
in
> the press, so i feel I can mention it) We are working through bond debt
used
> in building our facility -- we are close to out of the hole, but not
without
> major troubles. The problem as I see it (usual disclaimers on all of
this)
> is that if you depend on donations or some other subsidy, if you go into
> debt, the only way out is to increase these donations, and, you fund
raisers
> can add to this, but I think we all know that money doesn't just flow in
the
> door.
>
> Anthony E. Kerwin
> Curator of Exhibits (disclaimer: you notice that this title doesn't say
> anything about fund raising)
> Pacific Northwest Museum of Natural History
> 1500 E. Main St.
> Ashland, OR 97520
>
> Phone: 541-488-1084             FAX: 541-482-1115
>