Over the last three decades, museums have moved into the limelight, and they have found that being on stage can be challenging, exhilarating, and, all too often, frustrating. What was once a rather uncomplicated and exclusive domain has now become an administrator’s nightmare.
It was rare, years ago, for anyone to question the caliber or form of governance in a museum. This is no longer the case today. As a more educated and affluent society discovers its local museums, there are cries for openness, participation, and change. Objects that once passed silently in and out of museum collections are now the subject of national and international debate. Artists are more vocal, and emerging groups of university-trained museum professionals are questioning traditional practices. One can add to this mix baffling copyright issues, more convoluted tax laws, and ever-growing governmental regulations. What legal problems could a museum have today? Perhaps it is more realistic to ask, “Where does one begin?”
Properly used, the law provides a means for freedom, for expression, and for growth. Consider, for instance, the familiar traffic light. This is a simple example of the law in action. By setting in motion a prescribed order, the traffic light permits us to proceed with assurance from point to point simply because, through the mechanism of the law, we have determined in advance who will have the right-of-way. It is this positive function of the law that can so benefit the museum profession. When doubt and confusion reign, it is time to learn the rules of the road. Only when the rules are known can one plan a course of action and travel with some confidence through unfamiliar and hazardous territory.
To use the law in this positive way, one must start with some very basic knowledge. Legal controversies have as many shades as an artist’s palette; unless certain legal principles are understood, there is little chance that real or potential problems will be spotted in a timely manner. Even more important, without a comfortable knowledge of the fundamental rights and obligations involved in museum administration, one is ill equipped to take preventive measures so that legal controversies are avoided. Accordingly, this book is arranged as follows. First, the legal nature of a museum is examined, as well as the various consequences that flow from this status. Discussed are the responsibilities placed on the board members of a museum, the privileges enjoyed by a museum, and the obligations imposed. Next, entities that may be able to question the quality of governance in a museum are examined. These range from the state attorney general to the local citizens’ group. The balance, and major portion, of the book discusses particular collection-related problems that have legal overtones. Because the emphasis is on prevention, this portion of the text begins with a section on collection management policies. Such policies are suggested as a practical method for ensuring a comprehensive approach to the many issues that affect collection management. The format for such a policy is then used to discuss individual issues as they relate to accessions, deaccessions, loans, and so forth.
Museum professionals are urged to use the text as a checklist for assessing the well-being of their organization’s collection-related practices. If read from cover to cover, the book highlights most issues that, if addressed early and objectively, foster good management and a dedication to excellence. For those museums that have collection management policies, the text can be a useful tool for review; for museums without collection management policies, it offers a framework on which to build.
It should be remembered that this text focuses on legal aspects of collection management and does not elaborate on ethical and professional standards. A museum that strives only to satisfy the law aims low. The melding of sound legal concepts with thoughtfully adopted ethical and professional standards will produce policies designed to foster excellence and public confidence.
In this third edition of the book, we are able to offer these observations that deserve thoughtful attention.
It is a truism that when things get tough there is a tendency to just lower standards. In this way we buy time and hope that somewhere down the line someone else must confront the problem we seek to avoid. Experience shows, however, that problems rarely go away; they just get worse if neglected. If we look over the way the museum profession has coped with its collection management problems over the past twenty-five years (the time since the first edition of this book was published), one would have to say that the profession has elected the lower road and ducked many of its difficult problems. As a result, these problems are still with the profession, and they are more difficult to resolve now because failure to address them quickly reduced the credibility of the profession.
Every edition of this book has gone into considerable detail on the following issues:
• The importance of understanding why we have a nonprofit section is this country because this information enables museums to make better policy decisions
• The importance of understanding the three basic legal duties of nonprofit board members and how these duties should guide board decision making
• The difference between a legal standard and an ethical standard and why museums should be aware of both
• The importance of having well-drafted collection management policies as well as seeing that they are implemented
If these issues had really been taken seriously by museums over the past twenty-five years, many setbacks could have been avoided. Consider the following:
• Within this period, museums almost saw the repeal of the federal tax provision granting deductions for charitable giving because of perceived manipulation of such provisions by museums.
• Numerous new reporting requirements were imposed on museums regarding the receipt and use of donated property, again because of a lack of trust in the way museums were handling such gifts.
• As museums became more market oriented, local governments began to question their property tax exemptions, and businesses stopped engaging in corporate philanthropy and replaced it with corporate sponsorships. Corporate sponsorships are nothing more than business arrangements—they involve no element of philanthropy.
In effect, because of the museum profession’s failure to give more attention to good governance over the past years, it has weakened its creditability and saddled itself with more administrative work. Maybe you, readers of this third edition of the book, will help turn this picture around. Your mantra will be “Learn the right way and do it right away.”