NOTES: 1/21/16 for POLS 446-3

The word administrator is derived from a Latin root which means to serve. The word manager is
a similar case, being derived from a Latin root which implies hands-on direction (notice, manual,
manipulate).

The work of administrators, particularly museum administration, is multifaceted, and includes: Human
resources, finance, marketing, law, technological competence, among many other skills. While in the
past museum curators were expected to be specialists, to a certain extent, the modern era demands
generals workers to perform and compete in the field. These generalist skills can be honed via
education and volunteer work, and our professor Dr. Bachman spent a number of years learning the
basics of the discipline in Wyoming. She also comments that one should be learning continually.

These days many museums are woefully understaffed, suffering budget cuts or chronic underfunding.
Departments across academia have largely been Balkanized, meaning they've divided up into many
smaller and well defined segments: People assembling exhibits may not necessarily be the folks
maintaining archives, etc., which only further increases the need for generalist administrators who can
handle all segments of the process.

Museums have a number of functions. The primary is as a voluntary education outlet for interested
citizens, a compliment to public and private education. Moreover, they're meant to preserve material
culture, insomuch as preservation can happen outside of the context the item was developed and used
within, and to entertain or provide aesthetic stimulation. They are/should be staffed by professionals.
An introductory text defines a museum as follows:

An organized and permanent non-profit and essentially educational or aesthetic organization that
owns, preserves, and displays objects on a regular schedule.

The problem of preserving context in these items is much discussed: NAGPRA (the Native American
Graves Preservation and Repatriation Act) limits what can be taken and displayed without express
permission from a tribal government due to generally Amerind perspectives on the purpose of material
culture. Much of this discussion centers on what is art. ((It's my personal opinion that once
something from a non-Western and sometimes Western culture, it's no longer art. A mask used in a
ritual dance is permanently removed from the dancing and chanting that once accompanied it, etc.))

Assignment for Tuesday:

>Find and bring in a mission statement from any given organization. It does not need printed or turned
in.
>Attempt to rewrite or reword the mission statement of SIUC's museum.