Hello,

I have some questions about your posting because there were so many
issues and assumptions mixed together.

Are you sure that museums and the arts are so "undervalued"?  Wasn't
there a recent study in New York City that showed how cultural
institutions generate more visitors and revenue for the city than all
of the sports events combined?

But measuring cultural versus business institutions is tricky in any case.
If you are looking at whether salary figures reflect society's values,
how will you quantify all of the volunteer labor that sustains museums
in the United States?  Volunteering is a cultural practice that not only
provides economic relief to an institution, but also symbolizes value.

Will a gender study reveal "value" issues?  Although men dominated
the founding museums in the United States, women dominated the historic
preservation movement.  But did any of these people, men or women, earn
high salaries that would signify the value of their work?  Or were
these efforts always underfunded, regardless of gender?

You may find that today there are more museums and proportionately
higher salaries than ever before.  Things may be better now BECAUSE
of the increase in museum education efforts over the past thirty years.

Lots of issues!

Valerie Fish