In response to Claudia's comment about museums not reaching all people- museums reach very few people- about 14% (Hood in her thesis on Toronto art museum visitors) and of those "reached" they spend very few hours / year in a museum. It would be an unusual visitor who spends more than 10 hours a year in a particular museum. I think museums are overrated on their informal educational potential. If we were truly interested in informing the public we would use entertainment (not educational ) television because that is how America spends its leasure time. Get a Van Gogh or a dinosaur bone on Friends or CSI and you have the potential to teach tens of millions per night. I suspect that all museums in the US might draw that many in a year..... Claudia said: During my museum "hiatus" I worked as a supermarket cashier (we still had to eat), and I can tell you that I no longer believe museums (many) reach all of the public. Although I have not yet figured out what we would need to do to reach a public that is unacquainted with the word "curator" and doesn't know or value history (at least, in my world of history museums), I hope to have that kind of epiphany soon. Certainly my interim work will inform my new work in ways I don't yet understand. Best wishes to all, Claudia Claudia J. Nicholson Executive Director North Star Museum of Boy Scouting and Girl Scouting 651-739-8857 [log in to unmask] www.nssm.org Christopher H. Whittle, Ph.D. Research Fellow, Center for Inquiry & Faculty, Department of Learning and Instruction State University of New York, Buffalo 716-645-2455 ext. 1136 3925 Rensch Road, Amherst, NY 14228 [log in to unmask] / [log in to unmask] ========================================================= 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).