I wonder why the AAM doesn't have on its website its report on "Trust and
Education," recently shipped to member institutions along with a press
packet for local use.  To quote from a summary page:

"In a time of enormous cynicism about public institutions, the broadest
range of Americans view museums as one of the most important resources for
educating our children and as one of the most trustworthy sources of
objective information."  This is followed by subheads saying:

"Americans trust museums and trust them the most...
"Everybody trusts museums...
"Museums are primary contributors to the education of children..
"Museums are trusted more than books...
"News media are not trusted...
"Most Americans visited a museum in the past year...


Ellen Cutler writes:
snip>>I would disagree that "if museums suffer in the eyes of their
communities,
it is because they have done sensational things in the name of marketing.
To that extent, they have stretched their mission and serious philanthropy
obviously doesn't stretch with them."  I am not sure that museums ever
represented secure and meaningful value to the largest part of the
population. The recent silliness providing fodder for the journalists is
not, in my opinion, eroding values.  Museums have traditionally been the
refuge of the educated and wealthy away from the teeming masses, and the
social, spiritual, and ideological values that the elite perceived in
museums were aggressively instilled in successive generations as part of the
preparation for managing the material inheritance.
<<snip


>Ellen B. Cutler
LNB Associates: Writing, Editing, Resesarch Services
Aberdeen, MD

Ross Weeks Jr.
Historic Crab Orchard Museum & Pioneer Park
Tazewell, Va.
http://histcrab.netscope.net

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