Jennifer Reed wrote:
>
> What sort of "facilities," Greg??
>
> According to GP Stemm:
> >
> > Museum folks...
> >
> > Thanks to those that responded to my original query about retail/museum
> > operations. There seems to be a level of interest in the community for
> > this concept.
> >
> > Our company is planning a series of facilities that will display
> > shipwreck artifacts and sell replica jewelery, gifts, etc. with that
> > theme. We are collaborating with the archaeological community, and hope
> > this can be a model that demostrates that replicas and the museum part
> > of the facility can provide a method for funding archaeologically-sound
> > projects.
> >

Jennifer,

Thank you for your query.

The facilities are For-Profit, and will be tourism-oriented. Probably
the closest model is the H.Stern Gemmological Museum/Retail jewelry
store in Rio de Janeiro. . .however, our "facilities" will be oriented
to Maritime History and Shipwrecks.

We are VERY,VERY sensitive to the ethical issues relating to shipwrecks,
archaeologists, and the commercial community. We are planning this in a
way that we hope benefits the non-profit archaeological community as
well as the public (and ourselves - we are in business, after all!).

The concept of the public paying to see and experience historically
important artifacts in an exciting and inter-active context may be the
compromise that keeps collections of shipwreck artifacts together and
generates profits to fund nautical archaeological excavations.

The shipwreck projects I am affiliated with are in very deep water
(ranging from 500 to 2,000 meters), and since it may cost more than
$5,000,000 to excavate one shipwreck in that depth (in an
archaeologically-sound manner), these wrecks and the knowledge they
contain are more expensive than most academic/institutional
archaeologists can afford. The adventure and high-technology that
accompany a deep water expedition do, however, provide an exciting story
that we believe people will pay to experience.

I look forward to your thoughts on this.

Regards,

Greg

PS If the For-Profit nature of our operation suggests that we shouldn't
be discussing it on this group, please be so kind as to enlighten me.
I'm just looking for a forum for the exchange of ideas on how to
educate, entertain and enlighten the public.