Barbara -
 
My experience with exhibit development comes from small museums, non-profit and municipal.  In the world of small museums, administration does everything from exhibit development to toilet cleaning!  Although I'm now in a different environment, I remember the days very well. While this was sometimes referred to as "multi-tasking" it felt much more like schizophrenia as I argued with myself regarding time allocation, finances, interpretation, collections management and any other issue that floated past. The governing folks were always in support of more exhibits, just so that they didn't involve money.  Gaining recognition for judicious constraints on exhibits (the need for collections management and interpretation) could be difficult. 
 
This is drawn from being the primary professional level staff at three museums.  Many, if not most, museums operate with one or two full-time professionals.  Some have a myriad of volunteers, others a handful who, perhaps with part-time staff, complement the full-timers.  In case knowing budget levels helps you evaluate these responses, the budget at the three museums ranged from $60,000 to $180,000.

>>> [log in to unmask] 12/19/01 08:12AM >>>
I would like to take a brief survey of the list members.  If you are
involved in the exhibit development process at a museum, do you find that
you have timely support from your administrative staff?  Are they willing
to commit museum resources to the project in the form of staff time, funds,
and fund raising efforts?  Are seed moneys made available to you for
concept development?

Conversely, do you find that projects drag on for years due to lack of
administrative commitment?  Do you experience a reluctance to make
decisions concerning the future of proposed exhibitions?  My goal in
conducting this survey is to find a museum (hopefully, more than one!)
where there is a culture of support for completing exhibition projects in a
timely manner and pick the brains of the design and development staff.
Thanks for participating.

Barbara Brennan


_______________________________
Barbara Brennan
Exhibition Designer
National Air and Space Museum
Washington, DC  20560-0316
202-357-2975 phone, 202-357-3005 fax

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).
========================================================= Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).