January 2007 Page 7

> VAAx20 ANNIVERSARY PARTY

Don't forget to attend, if willing and able:

Sunday
January 28th, 2007
3-5PM

801 25th St.
San Francisco

VISUAL ART ACCESS has reached the milestone of 20 years, and we have this chance to reunite AMERICAN SURREALIST INITIATIVE artists as well... thanks to Nancy Russell, Jerry Barrish and Circles Art, Inc.

Many have said they plan to be there, and some are coming from far away.

Bring food and camera, family and friends... all are welcome.

> ARTIST ESTATES

VAA is, today, primarily interested in helping mature artists handle their estate planning.

You worked for a lifetime, made a lot of art, invested probably uncounted dollars... to say nothing of relationships. Now what!

When I was a much younger man, I envisioned a world in which art schools, dealers, appraisers, museums, framers, conservators, shippers, insurers, galleries, historians, web-designers, assistants, publishers and all others who have made their livings from artists might step forward to provide artists with a retirement home and health care option... where an artist could obtain a bit of peace after a lifetime of paying for that which is not for sale. I once imagined that there should be free and open exchange of information.

Yet, here we are. There ARE solutions to the problems artists face, or will or should, one day, resolve.

You have an estate. It must be dealt with.

If we fail to deal with it, then those who made their livings from art will benefit most, again. And, what is worse, the ones we leave behind will be forced, by law, to make up for our failings to create a sensible plan.

> THE COST OF FREE MUSEUM ADMISSION

- In 2004 the median entrance fee to an art museum was $7
- The median cost to the museum for each visitor was $35.98
- Admissions income provides about 5% of operating budget to art museums
- 18% of operating revenue in art museums comes from gift shop, space/parking rental and food service
- in 1950 there were roughly 100 art museums in America
- in 2007 the AAM counts 750+ art museums in America
- Art museums are 16% of all American museums
- It is said that there are currently 4,000 art museums in America

MOMA and THE MET charge $20 entrance fee per person.

The Federal minimum wage is, today, $5.15/hour. In two years, it may rise to $7.25. At that rate, it would require a minimum wage worker to expend almost 3 hours of labor... just to get in the door of those two museums.

Our national museums in Washington DC are, still, free admission.

> AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF MUSEUMS ANNUAL MEETING

Chicago
May 13-17
Lakeside Center, McCormick Place

I urge all artists who wish to fully understand museums, to attend and have their eyes opened wide.

www.aam-us.org

> LOOTED ART TREASURES IN IRAQ

Whenever war comes, cultural treasures are always looted, destroyed or "lost."

Army Reserve Major Corine Wegener (Ret.), an associate curator at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, was deployed to Iraq for a year after the invasion to help rebuild the Iraq Museum.

She is valiantly attempting to set up an American branch of "BLUE SHEILD"... a committee set up in 1996 to respond to armed conflicts that threaten cultural property. She is trying to put in place some training through Army Civil Affairs on how to give first aid to cultural property.

Please investigate and support her work.