It isn't just about fund raising, although that is a big deal. It is about being ready to fund raise...why is someone going to give us money to do preservation?

The answer, in the case of LACMA, is that they are located in one of the biggest metro areas of the country and are regarded as innovative, dynamic (as in changing), and are promoters. We can whine all day long about big rocks and dangling locomotives, but apparently it raises LOTS of money.

We have museums and exhibits in major metro areas and they certainly do better at fund raising than those in the less populated areas, but that is not a universal truth, just as is the case for art and other preservation organizations. What's missing is a couple of things:

Art is everywhere, in the school curriculums, in our homes, in our towns and in museums...Interestingly, railroads are accessible in most areas, but our "art" is represented in very few (unless you included preserved depots...hold that thought).

Schools host field trips to art museums as part of their curriculum....how many of your local schools do the same for your museum? If we don't "start them young", we won't "see them older with money".

Consider the following:

We have put the vast majority of our artifacts in very few, large collections, often outside of major metro areas...if the Art Institute of Chicago was in Union, IL, do you think "they would come" or "give big bucks"? (I am NOT picking on IRM...just making a point). In most cases, we do okay, considering our disadvantages.

We have "cultural outposts" in thousands of local metro areas, cities and towns across the country...our restored or restorable depots....but we have very few artifacts at most of these depots, which makes it difficult to build grass roots appreciation of our passion. We don't distribute what we have for education and promotion, because we are too "proprietary" about "our stuff".

Big collections mean it takes big bucks to sustain them and we are losing as much as we sustain every year...just read the desperate pleas for assistance to prevent scrapping on this board.

There are no "slackers" in our art form..everyone works hard and does what they can...but we had best examine our "model" of collecting, restoring and preserving...because we are losing ground when others, like LACMA, are delivering what the public wants to see (and pay for).

Craig Brinkman
www.arpcp.org

[There are no "slackers" in our art form..everyone works hard and does what they can...Craig Brinkman
[/quote]

This is the only disagreement I have with your posting. I know far too many people who would rather debate institutional politics, get caught up in rivet counting, take pictures but not donate a dime, obsess about maintaining an organizational structure and style that was obsolete by 1980 and otherwise dither emotionally while their tiny pond shrivels to a puddle and disappears around them. Keeping busy dithering and whining is another definition of slacking from my POV.

Learning to be like successful institutions instead of expecting people to realign their persectives of what is a successful and worthy institution to support isn't rocket science. There aren't enough Edsel buyers in a Prius world for us to gear up to produce Edsels, no matter how enthusiastic about Edsels we might be. What is hard to swallow is the almost institutional resistance to learn and evolve by being like successful organizations - which is as easy as monkee see, monkey do if you can't gather the brains together to do otherwise - still prevailent among many of us. The unintentional triages being bemoaned now are a direct result, and we can look forward to more of them. If we're really smart, we're starting to gather funds to promote rescues of choice bits now from our brother's estates as they die off - beats complaining about not having done so after the fact.

Arts are also in declining funding - but they do better than we do. Why? People care more about arts, and are less willing to lose that then a bunch of guys playing trains on Saturday while calling themselves a museum. What can we do to make ourselves more relevant, integral and organically a part of our communities?

I think not thinking or acting like us any longer is the first step.

dave

A couple of previous threads that may be of interest here:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=18663&hilit=carroll+park+%26+western

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=29793&hilit=carroll+park+%26+western