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Museums, Public Service, and Funding: Today's Conundrum, Tomorrow's Partnership?
Author(s) -
Butterfield Anne
Publication year - 2001
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.2151-6952.2001.tb00028.x
Subject(s) - exhibition , government (linguistics) , general partnership , public relations , work (physics) , service (business) , public service , curriculum , service learning , political science , public administration , business , engineering , marketing , visual arts , law , mechanical engineering , art , linguistics , philosophy
Museums have become adept at working with giving allies in foundations, corporations and government agencies who prefer to make grants for specific projects. This works well for discreet activities such as planning an exhibition, cataloguing a collection, or setting up a new store designed to eventually strengthen earned income. It even worked well as museums began to experiment with creating new products such as curriculum kits that would “reach out” to specialized audiences. However, truly providing museum‐wide public service for a broad audience and creating social capital in our communities is not a discreet project, therefore the project‐funding model can thwart the mutual goals museums and institutional funders are trying to achieve. This article explores the problem and suggests that museums work with philanthropic allies to find better ways to create and sustain true public service.