Regardless of how much money MOMA's store does or does not earn (which
neither Mr. Finch nor the author of the original message actually
knows...), I think the point was that MOMA has other financial resources
and that it would have been more appropriate to spend that $65 million of
taxpayer money  on public schools than on a private institution.
It is inappropriate to accuse the author of the original message of
attacking museums as irrelevant  because he/she thinks New York City public
schools should be given priority in matters of financial allocations over a
private museum, or as elitist because he/she points out that MOMA has
significantly wealthy board members as part of a discussion of its
financial resources and why it is not as urgently in need of that taxpayer
money as the public schools are.
Jodi Gronborg



>First, while I don't have figures at my fingertips, it seems highly
>unlikely that MOMA earns $250 million in its store (though I wish it
>did).  Second, using museum-l as a venue to attack museums as irrelevant
>and elitist hardly seems an efficient way of gaining sympathy for the
>artists' cause.  Third, I  wonder whether the poster feels that Congress
>should reverse itself and allow NEA grants to individual artists, even
>at a time when "schools are in a state of imminent collapse."
>
>Andy Finch
>AAM Government Affairs
>[log in to unmask]
>
>NOT AN OFFICIAL COMMUNICATIONS
>
>> MOMA, one of the world s most successful art museums, allegedly
>> earnsmore than $250 million each year in their gift shop alone.
>> Giuliani
>> has denied that this is a peculiar way to spend tax dollars when
>> the City s schools are in a state of immanent physical collapse.
>> Giuliani ...cited cultural benefits to schoolchildren as justification
>> for the
>> $65 million grant to the private art museum.
>>


Jodi Gronborg, Exhibit Developer
Chicago Academy of Sciences, The Nature Museum

*Opinions expressed are my own and may not necessarily be that of my employer.