Museums are becoming gathering places for the community.

The fund-raising environment is consistently more competitive. The situation of any new museum today is a challenge, regardless of what kind of museum it is.

It is a trend that is certainly being noticed around the country.

We were inadvertently sending a message to the public that they were not welcome. We do want everyone in the museum and we want to create a comfortable place.

We’re learning now that the destruction was even greater than we thought. What we need most now is skeleton staffs to protect these collections not just in New Orleans but all along the Gulf Coast.

This is the greatest damage to and loss of cultural institutions and cultural patrimony in the history of the country.

The problem is that these institutions made it through the storm but the worst may be yet to come.