Classifying museums as "the arts" rather than with "education," as the article does near the bottom, is surely part of the problem. Not all museums are, as we all know, art museums, and the New Jersey Historical Society can probably not be well-categorized as an art museum.
In any case, though, museums are still, and unfortunately, routinely thought of by the public as collection repositories rather than educational institutions. If big donors are interested, these days, in funding education (over art), museums certainly qualify and only a very few might not be suffering these days from lower attendance and entry fees, dropping membership numbers, and public grants or appropriations.
Finding creative ways to enhance educational aspects of museums, aspects that reach out into communities and create greater public presence even without large exhibits -- i.e. rethinking the roles and forms of museums -- will likely be necessary to delay or stop the necessity of selling off items from collections to keep the doors open.
The situation with the New Jersey society is, indeed, unfortunate; it might have been avoidable but that's hard for most of us to know; and, in any case, the society is there now. It seems that the goal of such action must be not merely keeping the doors open and the staff paid but time to breathe so the society can rethink and remodel its mission, goals, and avenues to achieving both in a societal environment that views education as a path toward the future and it not as concerned with collecting the past for its own sake.


Jeffrey L. Boyer, RPA
Supervisory Archaeologist/Project Director
Office of Archaeological Studies, Museum of New Mexico

  *   mail: P.O. Box 2087, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87504
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 "Many a great idea has drowned in the cess pool of data." -Eric Blinman
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________________________________________
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Jerry Schaefer [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2011 12:06 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Historical society sells artifacts to survive

Anyone remember when the Metropolitan Museum of Art sold off part of the Egyptian Collection?

Regards,

Jerry Schaefer

ASM Affiliates, Inc.
2034 Corte Del Nogal
Carlsbad, CA 92011
760-804-5757 (office)
760-804-5755 (fax)
http://www.asmaffiliates.com/


-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thursday, January 20, 2011 10:58 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Historical society sells artifacts to survive

Prretty scary, people.

Mike Polk

Historical society sells artifacts to survive
Published: Friday, January 14, 2011, 6:00 AM

 By Star-Ledger Editorial Board



Jerry McCrea/The Star-Ledger
The New Jersey Historical Society is selling some artifacts from its collection to pay debts totalling $2.6 million.


Call it a high-end garage sale, or a fabulous rent party: the New Jersey Historical Society is auctioning off prime artifacts from its collection to help pay the bills. You don�t have to be a historian to gasp at the $2.1 million sale last month of an extremely rare 1784 map of the United States. It had been in the historical society�s possession since 1862. No more. Other items will go on the auction block soon, including oil paintings, silverware and 18th-century furniture.

Something is dreadfully wrong when an institution cannibalizes itself to survive. It�s fair to ask whether the society correctly managed its meager resources over the years, and whether corporate and other donors could have been more generous, too.

Selling off part of a museum�s collection is considered by some to be unethical. But in this case, the society had little choice. Board president John Zinn told The Star-Ledger�s Peggy McGlone that the society had to retire $2.6 million in debt to continue operating, so clearly its back was to the wall. The historical society is the oldest nonprofit institution in the state, and like many older arts organizations in the region, began with private, not public, funding. And it has struggled.

"For many years, it�s been an institution run close to the edge," said Stanley Katz, director of the Princeton University Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies. "That�s true of many historical societies. They�re very marginal in their own communities and their mission is not clear." It doesn�t help that the society occupies a small building on Military Park in downtown Newark, not suitable for blockbuster exhibits that draw people and fill coffers.

Few historical societies would be able to survive on user fees or membership subscriptions alone. Only 5 percent of the New Jersey Historical Society�s budget comes from membership dues, and its annual state grant of nearly $300,000 was cut off this year. Great donors are hard to find in smaller cities, and like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, are more likely to apply their millions to education reform, not the arts.

Rutgers historian Clement Price questioned the lack of wider corporate support. "Heritage and history, exhibits and collections help to give a state an identity," he said.
Zinn said the society will move away from exhibits and focus on its research library, archive and educational programs. That may be the only way for it to survive in the 21st century