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During the 1997 year, we will be sharing the photographic retrospective Harry Callahan with the High Museum in Atlanta, the Detroit Institute of Fine Arts and the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, as well as Corot and Early Open-Air Painting with the Saint Louis (Missouri) Art Museum.

The high standards of the National Gallery's curatorial and exhibition organization and design staffs serve as a benchmark for other museums in this country and abroad. Museum professionals throughout the United States use the Gallery and its staff as a resource in such diverse areas as installation design, automated financial reporting, publications, and contracts. The Gallery leads the museum profession with its computerized Collection Management System; a new comprehensive, interactive video program, the Micro Gallery, which opened for public use in October 1995; research in digital imaging to continue the development of our video disc projects; and experimental programs to harness technology to further art education and scholarly efforts.

The National Gallery's unique nature and high standards, we believe, are directly responsible for sustaining an average of nearly five million visitors a year. In a survey of visitors to the National Gallery last fiscal year, all fifty states and U.S. territories were represented along with more than 80 foreign countries. The primary reason for this response is the enthusiasm of the public for the Gallery's privately acquired and unparalleled collections and its extraordinary special exhibitions such as Johannes Vermeer and Winslow Homer.

These

The 1997 Special Exhibition schedule promises to be ambitious, international, and diverse, ranging from paintings to decorative arts. The year will begin with Georges de la Tour, the renowned French painter of the seventeenth century, and a print and drawings exhibition focusing on Michelangelo. exhibitions will be followed by China and Cambodia, each exhibition profiling the major monuments of their culture. single artist exhibitions include Ludwig Sander, Pablo Picasso and Thomas Moran. Rounding out the exhibition schedule are Victorian Paintings.

Other

The National Gallery of Art's buildings themselves are important national monuments, as significant as the great works of art which they house. The West Building will be 56 years old in 1997; the East Building will be 19 years old. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Gallery faces a steady, ongoing

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program of repairs and renovations to keep these buildings functioning efficiently, securely and safely. The upkeep of these buildings is essential to protect our national treasures and the safety of our visitors. We must maintain these buildings to ensure that they continue to provide a secure and aesthetically appropriate environment so fundamental to the National Gallery of Art's mission.

Several forces make such a program necessary. The aging of these buildings necessitates the replacement of some of the basic building systems, purchase of new operating equipment when spare parts are no longer available, and updating of facilities as they become worn or impractical. The Gallery, standing as it does in the Nation's Capital, serves a steady stream of visitors and tourists from across the United States and from around the world.

The major critical projects currently underway are by their nature of greatest importance to the Gallery, multi-year in duration and costly. They are: replacement of the West Building skylights, roofing and flashing; installation of a centrallycontrolled, computer-based, energy management/building automation system using previously appropriated funds and a $2 million grant from the Department of Energy's Federal Energy Efficiency Fund; and installation of the enhanced fire protection system for the art storage rooms and galleries in both the East and West Buildings.

Our ongoing renovation program focuses on projects such as: security, environmental compliance, lighting, alteration/ renovation, and access, safety and building repairs. Within these categories are multi-year projects such as: asbestos abatement, replacement of the air conditioning compressor refrigerant with an environmentally safe refrigerant, elevator renovation and rebuilding, and recaulking of all the decaying expansion, mortar and stonework joints to prevent water infiltration, to name a few.

It must be noted, however, that the Gallery can only sustain so much interior disruption at any point in time, lest our collections become inaccessible to the public. Therefore, we have carefully phased-in on a priority basis our critical projects and our ongoing renovation programs so as much of the nation's art as possible remains on view.

Mr. Chairman and Subcommittee members, I would like to thank you for your time and your consideration of our needs. I will be glad to respond to any questions you might have about the Gallery, its operations and its programs.

1.

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

COMMITTEE QUESTIONS FOR THE RECORD

FISCAL YEAR 1997 BUDGET REQUEST

Question: Over 90 percent of your operating budget request is devoted to staffing and related expenses such as rent, supplies and equipment. How does this compare with previous years?

Answer: Since 1988, an average of 94% of the National Gallery's operating budget has been devoted to staffing and related expenses (Salaries & Expenses).

2.

years.

Question: Please provide details for the record of the last ten fiscal

Answer: A comparison of Salaries & Expenses versus Renovation monies appropriated for the past ten years follows:

3. Question: What types of contracts do you fund under the "other services" object classification?

Answer: The following types of contracts are funded under the "other services" object classification:

4.

Gallery-wide employee training

TOTAL

Question: To what extent are you diverting funds away from these services in fiscal years 1996 and 1997 to absorb fixed cost increases for salaries and related expenses?

Answer: In FY 1996 the Gallery took an across-the-board 6% cut ($476,000) in one-year operating funds for all non-pay classifications to help absorb fixed cost increases for salaries and related expenses. $242,000 of this cut came from "other services". In addition, "other services" costs for special exhibitions will be cut 10%.

In FY 1997 the Gallery proposes diverting $341,000 from non-pay classifications to help absorb fixed cost increases. $84,000 of this amount is to come from "other services" by curtailing selected activities of the Education, Library, National Lending Service and Exhibition programs. This includes reducing the number of film programs and Sunday lectures; limiting the Library's on-line electronic data inquiries in conjunction with cataloguing books; restricting the number of outgoing loans of art to other museums; and eliminating some educational videos normally developed in conjunction with special exhibition programs.

5.

house?

Question: How do you decide what to fund under contract versus in

Answer: Taking into account the mission of the National Gallery of Art, which is to serve the country by preserving, collecting, exhibiting and encouraging the understanding of works of art by the American public, periodic functional position-by-position assessments are made regarding the types and quantities of staff that are necessary to carry out this mission. For example, in some cases it is more practical to obtain, via short-term contract, certain professional services only required to support specific exhibition, conservation, education, or other activities.

Certain services, such as express mail delivery, elevator maintenance, trash removal, uniform cleaning, pest control, and building and equipment repair, because they can be completed more efficiently and economically under contract as needed, generally are not accomplished in-house.

6.

Question: What review process do you use to ensure that these decisions are the most cost effective initially and that they remain so over time?

Answer: We continually accept as our everyday challenge the responsibility for ensuring that, given the types of activities and projects underway and anticipated, appropriate staff are in place to meet those requirements. Factors that are considered include funds availability, union issues, and whether or not, for security or other reasons, the particular

activity or project lends itself to outsourcing rather than continuing it with core staff.

7. Question: The Committee's budget allocation for fiscal year 1997 is likely to be lower than in 1996. What programs would you reduce to achieve a funding level which is 3 percent below the fiscal year 1996 conference level?

Answer: The mission of the National Gallery of Art is to serve the country by preserving, collecting, exhibiting, and encouraging the understanding of works of art by the American public, at an exemplary level. In order to maintain the very highest standards, over the years, the Gallery has consistently hired and retained the best available curatorial, educational, and management staffs. Day-to-day operations support our mission through the care, maintenance, and security of the works of art and the facilities.

Virtually all of the Gallery's annual salaries and expenses appropriation covers personnel costs, rent, utilities, communications, plus security and maintenance of buildings, grounds and contents. Thus, the Gallery has limited flexibility, given its mandated purpose as a public museum housing a rare and valuable collection of fine art.

The Gallery's immediate challenge is threefold: to maintain the extraordinary staff it now has, including world acknowledged scholars; to protect the valuable collections and international loans entrusted to the Gallery's care for the edification and enjoyment of the American public; and to maintain the two landmark structures built for the Gallery with funds donated for this purpose by the Mellon family.

The National Gallery's educational programs have an audience of some 33 million people. The Gallery's education department provides materials to schools, colleges and universities throughout the country free of charge.

The Gallery itself is visited by an average of nearly five million people each year. 72% of our visitors come from some place other than Washington and its general environs, that is from all fifty states, U.S. territories and foreign countries throughout the world.

The Gallery is recognized as the preeminent national museum of fine arts in the United States, equal to or better than other national museums in Great Britain, France, Germany, Republic of China, Korea, Japan, Italy, and Russia.

Full staffing is required to make the collections accessible to the public, mount the special exhibitions that our visitors enjoy, carry out the educational programs that are demanded of us, and supervise the critical repairs now underway.

8. Question: What impact would a 3 percent reduction have on staffing and how many people would be subjected to a reduction in force?

Answer: A 3% reduction below the FY 1996 conference level is a $3,304,000 cut below our FY 1997 request. At this level the Gallery would have to conduct a reduction in force (RIF). A RIF would mean the elimination of 40 more positions to achieve the reduction in addition to the 20 necessary at the conference level as included in question 10 (for a total of 60 positions). The cost of an additional RIF would tax the Gallery yet another $920,000 (RIF costs of $14,000 per person, plus anticipated unemployment compensation of $9,000 per person times 40 people) for a total of $1,380,000. This sum is not provided for in any request.

REQUEST TO OMB

9.

Question: Your fiscal year 1997 budget request to the Office of