Talk:National Gallery of Art

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No offense USA-based friends but shouldn't this be at National Gallery of Art (USA) or suchlike? Every country's got (at least) one of the things.

Take a look at National Gallery—from the information in our articles at least, the U.S. one is the only one actually formally titled "National Gallery of Art"—please note that the article title is in all caps. Postdlf 12:50, 17 Mar 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Ownership contradiction

As of right now, this article says that the National Gallery of Art is both "privately owned" and "federally-owned." These two statements are strongly contradicting, since anything that is owned by the federal government of the United States of America belongs to "the people," making it, by definition, public. --Maande10 10:14, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

I believe the "privately owned" claim is nonsense; looking at the history of the NGA on their website provides no basis for that claim. It was founded by private donations to the government. At no point was it privatized. I wouldn't doubt that part of its collection may be merely held in trust for private owners, but that would need to be verified in detail and specifically described. Postdlf 18:40, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

I'm not sure if either "federally-owned" or "privately-owned" is 100% correct. NGA is an odd case, but I know it's not part of the Smithsonian Institution, which itself is an educational institution (.edu website) that recieves appropriations from the federal government.

The best info that I can find is http://www.nga.gov/press/info.htm, from which I quote:

Funding Sources. The National Gallery represents a partnership of federal and private resources. The Gallery's operations and maintenance are supported through federal appropriations. All of the Gallery's acquisitions of works of art, as well as numerous special programs, are made possible through private donations and funds.

Do all the works of art (and the buildings?) belong to the federal government? The buildings are probably at least managed by the General Services Administration. I'm guessing that NGA is somehow a quasi-federal entity. Maybe another similar example is the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS. --Aude 20:00, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

The buildings certainly belong to the government. All the quote above says is that the government does not pay for the art the NGA acquires—private donors do. It does not suggest private ownership. Postdlf 20:40, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

Certainly the museum isn't privately owned. To say it's federally-owned, I think, is somewhat misleading as it neglects the key role that private donations and funds play. With that said, I have copyedited the article to get rid of both "privately owned" and "federally-owned" and have more explicitly stated how the museum is supported, to hopefully clear up any confusion. --Aude 23:18, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject class rating

This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 15:58, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] the drop down menu seems unnecessary

It would seem that the drop down menu on this page is unnecessary. Listing art collections according to the number of works that they own is not a particularly interesting or helpful way of understanding their position. This is because some art museums focus on the individual importance of a few works rather than the overall quantity of works in possession. I would argue that the drop down menu should be either removed or suppressed. It clutters the page without any real gain. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.175.113.139 (talk) 19:14, 2 May 2008 (UTC)