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the Mall an idea of the treasures to be exhibited in the new National Museum of the American Indian.

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Although the New York State Supreme Court has not yet formally ruled on the petition brought by the Heye Foundation to permit transfer of its collection to the Smithsonian Institution under the terms of the Agreement reached last year and the Act of Congress passed unanimously in both Houses and signed by President Bush in the late fall, considerable progress has been made on a variety of fronts necessary to a smooth transition of the Museum from a small private concern to the National Museum it has long deserved to be. In particular, the Board of Trustees, as appointed by the Regents at their meeting in January, has met already three times and will meet again on June 4. Significant work by the Trustees to date includes the drafting of bylaws, the creation of committees to oversee staff activities, review and approval of space plans for the Museum's future facility in the old United States Custom House, and the consideration of topics for the Museum's opening exhibition to be held there in mid-1992.

Staff activity during this same period has revolved principally around the work of 11 task groups established under the general direction of Under Secretary Anderson. These task groups, comprising Heye Foundation staff, Smithsonian staff, Indian participants, and in many instances members of the Board of Trustees, are preparing a range of recommendations for the consideration of the Museum's first permanent Director in areas ranging from public programming to construction planning, and from community outreach efforts to technology applications. A series of recommendations will be prepared as the result of this preliminary work so that the Director can begin his or her tenure with the benefit of thorough and imaginative staff work already conducted.

Meanwhile, the recruitment of this first Director enters the homestretch with the search committee as chaired by Under Secretary Anderson having held three meetings to identify a short list of candidates. Interview sessions are scheduled before the end of May. In consonance with the Secretary's commitment to the Congress that the Museum's Director will be a Native American, the search committee has concentrated its efforts on identifying highly qualified American Indian candidates. 

One of the major tasks facing the new Director will be oversight of program, space and architectural planning for the Museum's new facilities. The Act of Congress requires that one-third the construction cost of the Mall museum facility be raised from non-Federal sources. A fund raising planning study, conducted by J. Richard Taft & Associates, is currently underway with a final report with recommendations, timetables and detailed budgets for implementation of the required National Museum of the American Indian capital campaign scheduled for July 1990. An early estimate of the cost of this campaign can be derived by rule of thumb: 15% of the targeted goal. With total construction costs of the Mall facility estimated at $106 million, the campaign goal would then be $35.3 million and the campaign's expense budget, $5.3 million. Half of this will be requested from the Congress as part of the Museum's annual operating budget; the other half would need to come from Unrestricted Trust funds of the Institution -- possibly to be repaid from proceeds of the campaign itself, after-the-fact.