The Association of Art Museum Directors comprises approximately 140 museums in the and Canada that have in common the collection, preservation and exhibition of works of art. They range from the great multicollection museums of New York, Chicago, Boston and Washington, D. C. to museums highly specialized as to era, region, subject matter and medium. Their collections include American, Asian, African, European, antique, medieval, modern, and contemporary art, art of the American West, and North Carolina folk art. There are museums that specialize in ceramics, glass, photography, portraiture, and sculpture. Their budgets range from a few hundred thousand dollars to well over one hundred million dollars. Half the members of the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) are housed in buildings smaller than the store operated by the largest museum, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

After almost half a century of unprecedented growth and prosperity, art museums in the , plagued by rising costs of acquiring, caring for, and exhibiting fine art, shrinking support from some traditional sources of revenue, and decreasingly supportive public policy, see themselves as faced with challenges they must struggle to meet and opportunities they may not be able to seize, frustrated by a growing disparity between what must be done and the means to do it.

Financial surveys of AAMD membership since 1985 confirm some elements of the museum dilemma and suggest directions in which solutions may lie, at least for some museums. Art museums taken as a group are funded by individuals, foundations, and corporations; by national, state, and local government; by the income of their own invested endowments; and by what they charge for various services more or less related to or derived from their principal functions. While about one third of the museums depend on all these sources, with none dominating, more than two-thirds depend on one or another of these sources for 40 percent or more of their revenue and are therefore especially vulnerable to the sorts of fluctuations suffered by any ordinary business that deals heavily in one market. Museums, in their efforts to achieve stable growth, might explore the advantages of diversifying their sources of revenue, as about one-third of them, the group I have called Various, now do.

CONTENTS
Introduction.
The Association of Art museum Directors.
The AAMD surveys.
Geographic distribution of art museums.
Sources of museum revenue.
Earnings.
Admissions revenue.
Store and restaurant revenue.
Other earnings.
Endowment.
Private contributions.
Expenditures.
Compensation expenditures.
Overhead expenditures: development, administration, and operations.
Program expenditures: curatorial service, conservation, education and library.
Capital expenditures and expansion of the physical plant.
The collection.
The effects of size.
Coping with financial problems.
Conclusion.

Appendix A: Association of Art Museum Directors Statistical Survey Questionnaire.
Appendix B: U.S. art museums, grouped according to size of metropolitan area in 
                   which they are located.
Appendix C: U.S. art museums, grouped according to principal source of revenue.

Tables:
       6.1 Museum characteristics by metropolitan area, 1988.
       6.2 Sources of museum revenue by metropolitan area, three-year totals, 1986-88.
       6.3 Percentage distribution of sources of revenue by metropolitan area, three-year
             totals, 1986-88.
       6.4 Percentage distribution among uses of funds by metropolitan area, three-year
             totals, 1986-88.
       6.5 Museum characteristics by principal source of revenue, 1986-88.
       6.6 Sources of museum revenue by principal source three-year totals, 1986-88.
       6.7 Distribution of revenue sources by principal source, three-year totals, 
            1986-88.    
       6.8 Earned revenue by principal sources of revenue, three-year totals, 1986-88.
       6.9 Market value and income of museum endowment by principal source of
             revenue, 1986-88.
     6.10 Museum endowment payout rates, 1988.
     6.11 Revenue from private contributions by principal source of revenue, three-year
            totals, 1986-88.
     6.12 Museum compensation expenditures by principal source of revenue, 
            three-year totals, 1986-88.
     6.13 Museum expenditures by principal source of revenue, three-year totals, 
            1986-88.
     6.14 Percentage distribution of museum expenditures by principal source of
            revenue, three-year totals, 1986-88.
     6.15 Distribution of program expenditures by principal source of revenue, 
            three-year totals, 1986-88.
     6.16 Museum space and capital expenditures by principal source of revenue, 
            1986-88. 
     6.17 Insured and estimated value of art collections by principal source of revenue,
            1988.
     6.18 Value and number of purchased and donated works of art by principal source
            of revenue, three-year totals, 1986-88.
     6.19 Characteristics of museum in the various group, classified by spending level, 
            1986-88.
     6.20 Principal revenue sources of museums in the various group, classified by
            spending level, three-year totals, 1986-88.
     6.21 Spending patterns of museums in the various group, classified by spending
            level, three-year totals, 1986-88.

The Association of Art Museum Directors comprises approximately 140 museums in the and Canada that have in common the collection, preservation and exhibition of works of art. They range from the great multicollection museums of New York, Chicago, Boston and Washington, D. C. to museums highly specialized as to era, region, subject matter and medium. Their collections include American, Asian, African, European, antique, medieval, modern, and contemporary art, art of the American West, and North Carolina folk art. There are museums that specialize in ceramics, glass, photography, portraiture, and sculpture. Their budgets range from a few hundred thousand dollars to well over one hundred million dollars. Half the members of the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) are housed in buildings smaller than the store operated by the largest museum, New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.