Good Afternoon John, Gosh John, this is a hard one. It's like the question, "What are the start up costs for a new (fill in the blank...hospital, private school, shopping center, air force)?" You need to first determine the size of the facility, construction/renovation of such a facility, funding sources (feasibility), projected attendance, scope of the programming efforts, etc. etc. etc. and the staff size to support what you want to do, and then look for recently established and similiar organizations that mirror your proposed institutional and program offering profile and then ask them to share with you their original budget for start-up and then the actual figures after the first 3 years of operations. Those actuals would be a good place to start having a dialogue. In other words, look for comparables that are already in operation and take it from there. Best Wishes and Good Luck! Wesley S. Creel Administrator of Programs & Interim Director of Museums Pink Palace Family of Museums Memphis, Tennessee www.memphismuseums.org ========================================================= 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).