ABSTRACT
Most museums are non-profit-making institutions. In the past, they could normally rely on continuous funding from their funding bodies, usually central and local government in the UK, or also benefactors in the US. However, two significant changes have altered this 'dependency culture', as it has been called with some derision. First, the advent and phenomenal growth, particularly in the UK, of independent museums. Although to a large extent the independent museums receive some funding from municipal authorities and grant-giving bodies, this income is not sufficient for survival. Independent museums have to generate their own income. The second change has been the demise of automatic annual increases in funding for local authority and central government museums. The political and economic climate has changed, bringing in demands that museums become accountable, show 'value for money', and that they use market mechanisms to seek plural funding. In other words, museums can no longer rely on public subsidy for survival. The issue of income generation and resource attraction has come very much to the fore. There are, of course, fears that the pendulum may swing too far, and museums may be forced to 'commercialise' in order to generate funds. This may be the case already with a number of independent museums. However, museums were not originally established to make money, nor is their current raison d'être income generation: that can be left to commercial leisure organisations, or until the spectre of privatisation becomes a reality. 'Value' in museums is the value of the collection, manifested in its value to the public in terms of their experience. Value is not financially driven in museums but experience-driven.
