博物館‧基金會

Museums and Foundations

國內博物館事業走到二十世紀末，已經展現出蓬勃的景象，在這蓬勃景象之背後意味著「競合時代」的來臨，眾多的公、私立博物館（民國86年6月文建會出版資料中，國內博物館共有163所，且陸續增加中）在面臨競合時代，無不極力思索在邁向二十一世紀峙的經營生存之道。公立博物館每年的經費都由政府編列預算，因此在目前較不會發生經費不足之情形，也不像私人博物館受限於經費， 而無法安排更多元的展示與教育活動，但是在未來可預見國家總預算在社會福利支出大幅增加後，對於博物館的經費支助將大幅縮減，此現象猶如美國在1981年雷根總統任內大幅刪減文化機構之預算一般，且年度預算通常在一年至一年半以前編列，通過後運用彈性很低。國內私人博物館由於法令問題（博物館法尚未通過），所以都附設在財團法人基金會之下營運，也就是先有基金會，然後再有博物館的設立，所以可稱為「基金會博物館」；這與公立博物館所成立的基金會有很大的不同，公立博物館皆是先有博物館設立，之後才成立基金會組織，我們稱為「博物館基金會」。基金會、博物館兩者皆屬於非營利組織，以下我們先了解非營利組織的定義、分類與其功能。

Museums in Taiwan had achieved an admirable record by the end of the 20rh century, and beyond this remarkable performance lies the prospects of an age of heightened competition in which every museum will have to think hard about what it must be in order to survive in the coming century. At the close of the previous century all museums, public or private, were working with various foundations in order to achieve the maximum benefit from the various social resources. Both museums and these foundations are non-profit organizations, and this article begins by defining what a non-profit organization is, how such organizations are classified and what they can do. Next it goes further into their definitions, characteristics and classifications of museums and foundations , and how government regulations treat them differently. Finally, the article examines how private and public museums work with foundations and examines the difference between 'foundations museums' and 'museum foundations', with examples to show why these two types of relationships have developed so that people who work in the museum field can better understand them.