Dear T W, et al
Your are right.  Our profession is not perceived as valuable.  This is an
issue I have struggled with many times and one that has taken me my entire
adult life to learn not to take personally.  Please forgive the verbosity
and read on:

I am reminded of when my engineer boyfriend (now husband) came home from
work 1 year after graduation and was very mad and upset that he had received
"only a 1% raise".  I looked at the pay stub, did some quick math and
contradicted that he had, in fact, received a 5 % raise.  He replied that
there was a 4% cost of living increase that year and "since everyone gets a
cost of living raise, he had, in reality, only received a 1% raise".  I
began laughing uncontrollably.  When I was finally able to stop laughing, I
made fun of him for being a "spoiled little 'rich' kid raised by two career
government employees who thought that somebody owed them something because
of inflation".  He was shocked at my contempt.  It was at that point I
explained the "real world" to him.  He has since been well-inducted.

My point is this:  almost all of the careers in the government are not
revenue generating, per se.  No one works as a secretary for the water
department because it is their "life calling".  My in-laws would not have
worked as an agricultural extension agent and a nutritionist for the WIC
program, respectively, if they could not have supported their two sons and
sent them to decent state colleges.  I am fairly certain that NO ONE would
work in garbage collection for less than a livable wage.  None of these
careers directly generate capital for the government.  Yet, the community
pays for all of them, even though most of the community does not directly
benefit or even encounter personally some of these services.

Yet who would agree that society would be better off without community
health care, road maintenance, the Ag EXT office, or a myriad of other
services the government provides.  By benefiting a few persons, these
programs benefit us all indirectly.  And for some reason, these same people
who would not be wiling to live with out libraries, senior citizen centers,
snow plows, etc., seem to think that we need to work in the arts for less
than a Mickey D's employee because it is our "life's calling" and "it
doesn't make money anyway".

Yes, we need to raise our value in the community.  We have to make people
realize that "the arts" are not just for snobs, for this is the perception
of the general public.  We have to educate them that it is an integral part
of their lives and that their communities would be far, far worse places
without its cultural institutions.  We need full time, mandatory art /
cultural education in the schools...just like reading, math and science.  We
need  to program our institutions for diverse audiences.  We need to reach
out to un-traditional audiences and welcome them and show them that we have
something for them, too.  That their history / culture / art / environment
is important.  I believe that this goal of responding to and becoming part
of the community was the underlying theme of this year's AAM convention.  I
think it is the primary issue facing the museum "industry" in the 21st
century.  And, I think it can't be done from the outside.   It has to be
done from the inside.  We have to change before the public will.

In Europe and Asia, most cultural institutions are run by the government.
Their importance and value are rarely questioned by the populace because the
societies of these countries are more homogenous that ours.  Their unique
cultural heritage is a matter of national pride and considered a necessary
part of education.  In America, our diversity is so celebrated, we rarely
see our similarities.  As individuals, we have difficulty seeing ourselves
as part of the community.  And because of our past self-absorption and
elitist attitudes (especially in the arts), many people in our society do
not feel as if they are a part of this culture at all.  They are alienated
and uninterested.   These are the people we have to work hardest to reach.

One of the easiest ways for people to feel welcome is to see people like
them in that place.  This is where the need for diversity in museum staff
comes into this discussion.  We need people from all walks of life,
especially from minority, lower socio-economic, and middle class groups.  We
need people who expect to have to make a living from their employment.  And,
as long as starting salaries are so low that a person straight out of school
can't afford to live in the community, make their student loan payments, and
eat three meals a day, we are not going to get a diverse staff.  If you want
someone with a MA/MS or PhD, you are going to have to pay for it.  And I
don't mean a salary comparable to drug researchers or PhD engineers who
design cutting edge technology.  This is a capitalist society.  But you
should take into consideration how many years it takes to acquire that level
of education, the cost involved and the cost of living in the community
where the institution is located, and make the salary livable.  And if we
can't do that, we will never succeed in the larger goal of increasing
diversity in our audience and by default, our value in the community.

My goal for my career as stated on my grad school application was to
increase museum attendance / awareness in groups that are non-traditional
museum audiences.  I never expected to reach this goal in my lifetime, but
perhaps in my daughter's.  She is not yet 2.  That gives me a lot of time.
:)  I cannot, however, do this if I can't survive on my salary.  Neither can
anyone else.


Lori Allen,
Graduate Student, UMSL

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