Museum and University Mergers

(5-21-10) In yesterday's Wall Street Journal, Shelly Banjo profiled two West Coast museums that have averted breaking apart collections, closure, and other forms of institutional disaster by partnering with nearby universities. Banjo sites the pandemic of strained museum finances that resulted from the boom-time building and executive pay expansions that, in 2008, were abruptly sideswiped by the recession. Banjo notes that financial "emergencies represent especially difficult dilemmas for museum donors." Continued or increased support does not guarantee that the institution's doors will remain open, and there is always a risk that the emergency will require a museum's staff and/or board to alter the museum's character.

Read about it here.