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The ASTC Legacy and the Institute of Museum Services
Author(s) -
McGrath Lee Kimche
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
curator: the museum journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.312
H-Index - 8
eISSN - 2151-6952
pISSN - 0011-3069
DOI - 10.1111/j.2151-6952.1995.tb01042.x
Subject(s) - government (linguistics) , agency (philosophy) , legislation , political science , fell , engineering , public administration , public relations , sociology , law , geography , social science , cartography , philosophy , linguistics
The Association of Science‐Technology Centers (ASTC) represents 283 science‐technology centers in the United States and 89 centers around the world. Among its most significant accomplishments is the leadership role that it played in the passage of the legislation that created the Institute of Museum Services (IMS), the federal agency that provides general operating support for the nation's museums. Prior to the funding of the IMS, government support for individual projects in art and history museums had come from the NEA and NEH, but the science museums fell through the cracks. Science museums, were already represented in Washington by ASTC, and ASTC became the natural lobbying group to establish a separate agency for museums. Although ASTC was one of the major driving forces behind the creation of IMS, its members represent only a fraction of the beneficiaries of IMS grants. Since 1984, ASTC institutions have received only 10 to 16 percent of the total dollars awarded by IMS.