On Sat, 23 Jul 1994, Ann Mintz wrote: > To add another layer of information to Dave Wells' comment about the two > facilities at NMAI. Plans actually call for three buildings: the Customs > House, the Mall Museum, plus the storage/study facility at (sp?) Suitland > Maryland outside Washington D.C. I participated in a two-day planning > meeting for NMAI a couple of years ago, and they also discussed what they > call the Fourth Museum, which a museum without walls on the grandest possible > scale, a virtual assemblage of hundreds of tribal nations linked by > technology. In some ways, they felt that the Fourth Museum was the most > important. I too, was impressed with the concept of the "Fourth Museum." NMAI wanted to make its people and information available to tribal museums for reference, at least. That seemed a totally new way of promoting quality museums. Too often, tribal musuems are a one-person affair. Not always is the education and technology/information available. One of the distressing things I found when I wanted to learn about working in museums, was that the education isn't available until the graduate level, at most universities. I don't know why that is. I certainly didn't want to wade through four years of undergraduate to get what I was after, that seemed silly. Fortunately, between NMAI's Museum Studies Institute and Evergreen State College, I have been able to pursue that study. Granted, I have to come places like Internet to ask some questions, but at least I have the ammunition to ask the questions. Thanks Dave