Page:The museum, (Jackson, Marget Talbot, 1917).djvu/221

Rh for, has been brought about for a group of fifteen to twenty of your regular constituents! The habit of visiting an art museum in the evening has not been formed, and the moving picture show, where a man can sit at ease in his arm-chair and be amused, is much more attractive than the art museum. A far better method is to arrange for evening openings on special occasions such as, for instance, a visit from the Y. M. C. A. or Y. W. C. A., or for some big group of business men and women such as belong to the commercial clubs or similar organizations. In other words, let the museum make use of the clubs and gain the friendship of the community through its catholic hospitality.

There has been a very serious discussion of the effect of light upon collections and, while the art museum is, in this respect, less subject to harm than the scientific museum, there are yet certain groups of material that do suffer from continual exposure, and these should be protected by dark curtains or some other device, and never subjected to direct sunlight. In these classes are miniatures, water colors, textiles, embroideries, colored prints and Oriental paintings. For the sake of these departments, which are, after all, not the most important in any museum, it does not seem necessary to restrict the opening of the