At 01:14 PM 6/28/97 -0500, you wrote:

>Sometimes I feel that MN serves the same purpose as Martha Stewart LIVING:
>glossy and gorgeous, it portrays an admirable yet mostly unattainable goal
>for institutions with insufficient income, staff, and community support that
>ultimately makes one feel unworthy and mired at the bottom.
>
>
>Julia Moore
>Director of Exhibitions and Artist Services
>Indianapolis Art Center
>
Here, here! Those of us involved in renovation and expansion projects of
less than $50 million designed by lesser luminaries than I.M. Pei do have
feelings of inadequacy. I guess that's why there are "small museums"
committees and the like to make us feel better.

It seems like most of the print expended in the field is either for "glossy"
showpiece articles or the umpteenth thousandth article on label writing and
the importance of including in-ter-pre-tation in exhibits. When is the last
time anyone saw articles on developing a business plan for a museum,
advertising strategies, shopping for a fund raising consultant (not WRITTEN
by a consulting firm), analysis of visitor stats, a regular website
development column, etc.

Of course, I am still looking for that biennial AAM salary survey and
minimum professional standards recommendations the ALA created eons ago . . .
----------------------
Byron Johnson, Director
Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum
P.O. Box 2570, Waco, Texas 76702-2570
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]
------------------------------
"...Unless a people are educated and enlightened it is idle
to expect the continuance of civil liberty or the capacity
for self-government."
Texas Declaration of Independence,  March 2, 1836.