On Monday, the Albany Times Union published commentary from MANY regarding the legislation stipulating that collections cannot use proceeds from deaccession to pay operating or capital debt. You can find it
here.
The legislation does not address the very real issues of how museums should generate revenue. That is not its purpose. Once using proceeds is taken off the table as a revenue generating option, it leaves us to really focus on addressing the creation of safety nets that can stablize museum operations and help these important institutions to flourish.
Among the solutions cited in the commentary are:
- A revolving loan fund that strapped museums could tap into to buy time to restructure and figure out their next steps.
- A check-off box on the state personal income tax that gives residents the opportunity to make a contribution to an arts fund. (That legislation is pending.)
- Access to the state's health insurance program and aggregated energy purchasing to help lower two big chunks of operating costs.
- Comprehensive board and leadership training.
- Let's also look at the state's current grant reimbursement system, which can keep nonprofits waiting months or years to receive project funding, forcing them to borrow funds and take on added debt.
These are just a few potential solutions -- all of them are achievable and any one of them would go a long way to helping institutions steward their educational and collecting missions.
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