SCFM would like to encourage all members of the museum community to “Speak up for Museums!” We need to cultivate established relationships with our local, state and national governmental leaders and let them know what our needs are and how we benefit our communities. We are also working to build new relationships. In order to make effective requests for financial support, our public officials and legislators need to know who we are and what we do.
If we do not speak up and tell our officials what our needs are, they will not know that we need support. While most people trust museums and the information that we convey, they do not make the connection that museums are important educational institutions and that we make significant contributions to the quality of life in our community. We preserve and protect the cultural, artistic, historical, natural and scientific understandings that constitute our heritage.
We encourage you to speak up for your own institution and for the Museum community as a whole. To locate your state legislators, please visit http://www.scstatehouse.gov/cgi-bin/zipcodesearch.exe.
Download this brief economic impact statement (Word) designed for museums to complete and send out for any advocacy efforts.
For additional resources on museum advocacy initiatives, please visit http://www.speakupformuseums.org.
Institute for Museum and Library Services 2008 publication, “Exhibiting Public Value: Government Funding for Museums in the United States” is an excellent resource on the need for increased museum funding. This study provides the first major review of museum public finance in the United States. It explores public support from federal, state, and local government sources, focusing particular attention on levels of financial support and types of delivery mechanisms for public funding. http://www.imls.gov/pdf/MuseumPublicFinance.pdf |
