FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
January 22, 2008
IMLS Press
Contacts
202-653-4632
Jeannine Mjoseth, jmjoseth@imls.gov
Mamie Bittner, mbittner@imls.gov
Participants Sought for March Hearings on Museum Funding
WASHINGTON, DC--Avid museum
goers, community leaders, museum professionals, and individuals
who have encountered barriers to museum going are encouraged
to make their views known at one of three public hearings
on the use of public funds for museums, announced Anne-Imelda
Radice, PhD, Director of the Institute for Museum and
Library Services (IMLS). The Institute is the primary
source of federal funding for the nation’s museums
and libraries.
“In order to fully understand the
impact of public funds for museums, we must hear from
interested members of the public on the use of taxpayers’
dollars for these cultural institutions,” Radice
said.
IMLS is particularly interested in testimony
from school coordinators, older people, special needs
groups, and directors of cultural tours. IMLS would also
like to hear from leaders who can speak about the use
of public funds for cultural purposes based on their understanding
of county, state, and federal budgets and their experiences
with any and all kinds of museums, including art, history,
natural history, children’s museums, as well as
planetariums, science centers, gardens, and zoos.
Hearings will be held at three locations
in March:
March 10, 2008 The Ohio Historical Society,
Columbus, OH
March 12, 2008 The Nelson-Atkins Museum
of Art, Kansas City, MO
March 14, 2008 The Oakland Museum of
California, Oakland, CA
Radice and members of the National Museum
and Library Services Board will listen to both formal
and informal testimony. With the testifiers’ permission,
testimony will be recorded and used as part of a report
on the public funding of museums that will be released
in the summer of 2008.
The public hearings are the last in a series
of IMLS’s information-gathering efforts designed
to determine the sources and uses of public funds for
museums. Also part of the effort is a rigorous examination
by The Urban Institute, which, through a cooperative agreement
with IMLS, has gathered information about public funding
for museums through a national survey as well as through
individual interviews with museum professionals and museum
funders in selected states, in order to compare the impact
of different funding mechanisms. All the information gathered,
including the perspectives from the public, will be part
of the IMLS report.
To participate in the public hearings or
provide written testimony, please contact Mamie Bittner
at mbittner@imls.gov
or Celeste Colgan at celestecolgan@comcast.net.
Click here for
more information on the IMLS Museum Study.
|
