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