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today totalling something under $100,000.  The Museum has requested an emergency grant from the NEH to fund this shortfall and provide a stable funding supplement through FY 1978.

It is the committee's belief that sale of a portion of the Museum's real estate which may be unnecessary to the effective conduct of its programs would generate funds sufficient to ensure that any outstanding liabilities of the Museum will be liquidated and to provide additional funds for Museum purposes such as, for example, conservation of the collection.  This would also serve to reduce the Smithsonian's cost for building repair and upkeep, and raises the further possibility of joint staff appointments or transfer of staff to those other units of the Smithsonian into which the photographic archives, Black American art collection, library, and study collection might be integrated.  This could serve not only to reduce the need for increased appropriations in future years but also to strengthen the cooperation between the Museum and the rest of the Smithsonian.

The committee feels that, at least initially, most of the staff of the Museum of African Art should be retained by the Smithsonian.  In so far as some of the activities for which staff were hired by the Museum of African Art might be transferred to other units of the Smithsonian,