Well, Mr. Halprin got paid millions and still left in a huff over changes
made in his speech. I guess nobodys ever REALLY satisfied!

**************************************************************************
Mark Nielsen
Exhibit Designer/Preparator
University of Michigan Museum of Art
[log in to unmask]      313/647-2068

On Thu, 5 Sep 1996 [log in to unmask] wrote:

>    This Stephen Weil passage brings out the contrarian in me...
>
>    Besides being mushy on a scale right up there with Mark Helprin's
>    speech for Dole; it not only doesn't reflect my 15 years of
>    experience in the museum biz, it also is full of the "ain't we grand
>    and morally superior" tone that affects me like eating a package of
>    nutra-sweet(tm).
>
>    If anything, museums' general low rate of pay adds an edge of
>    embitterment to the employees.  Only a few employees in any given
>    museum are really "doing what they want to do," many of the
>    professional staff are in some evolving state of their professional
>    life, and are aiming higher.  So the associate curator of decorative
>    arts may be doing this because s/he loves it, but s/he sure would
>    like: a) to be better paid; b) to chief curator (or both).  And this
>    does not even address the support staff, ranging from frustrated
>    artists working as fundraisers, to non-union (for the most part)
>    security and clerical staff.
>
>    I've only worked in the for-profit world in menial temporary
>    summer-type jobs, and have always made the non-profit world my
>    professional focus.  So, my basis for comparison is slim, but I could
>    not generalize that people in the non-profit world are less embittered
>    than those in the business world.  Many in the latter get real kicks
>    from their work.  And if, in our eyes, their purpose is not so
>    admirable as ours, that is certainly our own business.  I suspect that
>    if I were in the for-profit world, my reaction to Stephen's statement
>    would be: "well, that holier-than-thou so and so, I go to museums, and
>    listen to music, and raise a family, and participate in my community,
>    and if he thinks that the museum world is such a noble and superior
>    calling, he's welcome to it." (or words to that effect)
>
>    I think its easy for us relatively poorer folks to feel morally
>    superior to relatively richer folks.  Again, that's fine (I indulge in
>    it too), but I don't think that it makes for a compelling rationale
>    for lousy pay and poor working conditions.
>
>    Eric Siegel
>    [log in to unmask]
>