ABSTRACT
Culture, in many parts of the world, is now not just a business, but big business. The Ministry for Culture in China, for instance, announced a reduction in public subsidies in 2006 as part of a plan to prompt commercial development. Cultural policy, or the ways that governments understand and make decisions about 'culture', more broadly, has vital ramifications for museums and galleries. The term 'governance' refers not to a specific body of the state, but to the action or manner of governing. As a consequence, Schuster argued that the binary division between 'public' and 'private', in the US and elsewhere, risks "oversimplification and misunderstanding". Global tourism is a relatively new phenomenon, while the idea of "trudging around art galleries and museums" looking at 'high culture' while on holiday until quite recently "sounded like rather hard work". Cultural tourism can have other effects too. The legal status and funding model of the museum come with certain conditions, and benefits.
