Jeremy:  I would suggest at least keeping some sort of accounting of staff
time on exhibit projects, for no other reason than it is a useful planning
tool.  Sure, some grants require staff time to be included in the budget,
but this is often only for staff directly involved on a day-to-day basis
with the project (curators, designers, etc.).

The larger issue is how much is an institution REALLY spending on exhibits?
How much time do high-priced management staff spend in reviewing plans?  How
many people sit around the table for 3 hours and critique the effort?  In
some places, the finding would be sobering, to say the least.

You may not need to account for every minute that staff spends on an
exhibit, but next time you are in a long planning meeting, go around the
table and add up salaries--it can be quite frightening--or enlightening if
you want to think about it that way.

Claudia Nicholson
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----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeremy T. Chrabascz" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2003 9:42 AM
Subject: Staff in exhibit budgets?


> I'd like to cast a wider net and open an official discussion on this one
as
> I've been receiving much disagreement/conflicting opinions on it -
>
> Should a museum budget ($$$) its own, internal staff time into an exhibit?
>
> Some say that staff time is already being budgeted and paid anyway while
> others say that you still work it in as an in-kind donation of services of
> sorts but it should still be part of the total.  Some grants require staff
> time to be calculated in, don't they?  YOUR THOUGHTS?  Thanks in advance
> for your time and consideration.
>
> Jeremy T. Chrabascz, Curator of Furnishings
> Indiana State Museum & Historic Sites
>
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