On Thu, 11 Jan 1996, Lisa Falk wrote:

> I'm sorry, but I think we need to do something about museum
> salaries....$15,000. for a FULL_TIME professional position?!  Who can
> possibly live on anything lower than $25,000 and even that is a feat
> worth commemorating, I don't care where you live.

> In general, most museum positions pay poorly--why?  and what can we do to
> change this?

I have no solutions, just a few comments.  Unfortunately this is the reality of
working in not-for-profit institutions, be they inside or outside the U.S. We
are in a world of shrinking public-sector funding and ever-decreasing
private-sector funding. Museums have to become more creative in making money
and have to now think more and more of revenue generation, that scary phrase of
the '90's. In Canada, the government has to chose between funding social
services, education, and health care, or funding cultural institutions. This
leaves the onus on us, as museum professionals, to develop new ways of working
and thnking that will facilitate making money. Unfortunately this does not
always (or rather rarely) translate into salary dollars. As has been noted
before, on the whole, museum work is not a particularly high-paying area of
work; it never has been and probably never will be. My experience is that many
people working in museums, are in it for the love of the work or the subject,
not the money. This is what boards of trustees count on and depend upon simply
because the money is not there for salary augmentation. If you wish to make
more money, you can begin charging consulting fees for work taken in from other
museums; charge for research; charge for school programmes. I know this is a
very flippant answer, but unfortunately, the sad reality is that nothing is
free anymore, including time. Otherwise, just hope that your job satisfaction
is not too closely tied to your salary level.

Denise Corbett

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The opinions expressed here are mine alone and not those of my employer!
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