Olivia S. Anastasiadis, Curator
Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace
18001 Yorba Linda Boulevard
Yorba Linda, CA  92886
(714) 993-5075 ext. 224; fax (714) 528-0544; e-mail:  [log in to unmask]

On Wed, 29 Jul 1998 15:22:38 -0700 Paul Apodaca <[log in to unmask]>
writes:
>The AAM exposes its dubious authority to accredit museums by not
>estabishing any criterion or advocacy concerning the protection of
>museum
>employees from abuse either in substandard compensation or employment
>definition.
>
>Museum employees are understandably intimidated in such a climate and
>desiring to hang onto the prestige of the job titles even if their
>treatment as employees is less that prestigious. This timidity thwarts
>any
>attempt at labor organization by casting it as beneath the class level
>of
>those who aspire to the prestige level intimated by their job title if
>not
>by their pay.  Low financial class workers with high social class
>jobs.
>This dichotomy leaves museum workers open to exploitation.
>
>Museum directors protesth too much.  Inflated salaries for development
>people and directors is encouraged and yes board members do profit in
>many, but not all, cases.
>
>The misguided attempts to go along with the trend of privatization and
>business model advocated by the head of AAM and others is short
>sighted
>and leaves the opportunity for the further erosion of the profession.
>Privatizing is placing more and more private collectors on museum
>boards,
>many of which were balanced in the past with public servants or
>representatives of the community, and these boards are then
>encouraging
>the promotion of art exhibits that increase the value of their own
>private
>collections.
>
>The reduction of academic curators increases the wine and cheese view
>of
>authenticity and programming.  Museum directors are no longer content
>to
>be so and are now being called presidents and vice-presidents.  More
>and
>more non-musum personnell are hired to oversee development goals and
>eventually funding opportunities control programming decisions. There
>are
>a myriad of examples in museums that are being privatized and aligning
>themselves with the business model from Orange County to New York.
>
>But you all know this. It is time to demand that AAM either resign its
>accreditation power or enforce a comprehensive overview of all aspects
>of
>the well being of the museum and not only those which promote the
>growing
>number of aspiring business executives and private collectors.  In
>such a
>validating move of its basic mission, AAM, would develop separate
>accreditations for museums in rural communities such as Indian
>reservations and Southern communities so that the majority of museums
>in
>the US, the small museums, would not be unfairly stigmatized as being
>unworthy because they cannot afford the technologies available to a
>few
>large museums.
>
>AAM cannot simply take the gravy anymore than can directors,
>development
>staff, and private collector/board members.  Directors can lead an era
>of
>fairness by taking a reduction in their salaries to be within a
>reasonable
>percentage of their employees and guarantee that salaries for all
>employees are comensurate equally with their education and experience.
>There is no reason why a person with an MA in the development office
>should make more than a person with an MA in any other part of the
>museum.
>
>Best,
>
>Paul Apodaca
>

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