Byline: By danny hakim section: Section B; Column 0; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 1 Length

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SUBJECT: US STATE GOVERNMENT (90%); ART & ARTISTS (90%); AFRICAN AMERICANS (88%); HISTORY (76%); HURRICANE KATRINA (73%); PAINTING (71%); ARTISTS & PERFORMERS (71%); SUGAR FARMING (50%); HOLOCAUST (67%)
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GEOGRAPHIC: NEW ORLEANS, LA, USA (79%) LOUISIANA, USA (99%) UNITED STATES (99%)
LOAD-DATE: May 25, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: BELOW FROM RIGHT: Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu at Whitney Plantation

Mass at St. Augustine Church in Natchitoches, La. (PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHRIS RAMIREZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES) (pg. TR9)

BELOW FROM LEFT: Melrose Plantation

Kathe Hambrick

the church at Whitney Plantation. (PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHRIS RAMIREZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES) (pg. TR8)

LEFT: Leonard Julien Jr. by the home where he grew up in Donaldsonville, La. Mr. Julien's father invented a machine to plant sugar cane. (pg. TR9)

On Louisiana's African-American Heritage Trail: TOP ROW, FROM LEFT: In Donaldsonville

lockup pen, Whitney Plantation

rabbit stew, Donaldsonville. MIDDLE, FROM LEFT: River Road museum exhibit

shackles, Tomb of Unknown Slave, Treme

Natale Sers, first-communicant, Natchitoches. BOTTOM, FROM LEFT: St. Augustine Church, Treme

crawfish, Donaldsonville

fishing, Cane River. (PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHRIS RAMIREZ FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES) (pg. TR1) MAP (pg. TR9) Map showing the Whitney Plantation and its surrounding points of interest in Louisiana.
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

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733 of 1231 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
May 25, 2008 Sunday

Late Edition - Final

SECTION: Section NJ; Column 0; New Jersey Weekly Desk; CALENDAR; Pg. 12
LENGTH: 2366 words
COMEDY

HASBROUCK HEIGHTS Bananas Comedy Club Paul Venier, stand-up. Friday at 9:30 p.m. and May 31 at 8 and 10:30 p.m. $12 and $15. Bananas Comedy Club, 283 Route 17 South. [phone]; www.bananascomedyclub.com.

NEWARKNew Jersey Performing Arts CenterBill Maher, stand-up. Friday at 8 p.m. $35 to $85. New Jersey Performing Arts Center, 1 Center Street. [phone]; www.nj

pac.org.

OUTDOORS

BASKING RIDGE Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge ''Spring Botanical Remedies Walking Tour.'' A search for medicinal plants used during Colonial times, hosted by the Museum of Early Trades. June 1 at 2 p.m. $4 to $8; advance registration required. Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, 241 Pleasant Plains Road. [phone].

PHILLIPSBURG Humdinger Alpaca Farm ''Shearing Festival.'' Learn about shearing and the uses for alpaca fiber. May 25, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Free. Humdinger Alpaca Farm, 239 Route 627. [phone]; humdingeralpacas.com.

FOR CHILDREN

ATLANTIC HIGHLANDS First Avenue Playhouse ''Puss in Boots,'' musical presented by the Paper Moon Puppet Theater. $9. Through June 22. First Avenue Playhouse, 123 First Avenue. [phone]; www.firstavenueplayhouse.com.

CAPE MAY Emlen Physick Estate Cape May Family Treasure Hunt, self-guided tours. Continuing. $5. Emlen Physick Estate, 1048 Washington Street. [phone]; www.capemaymac.org.

WEST WINDSOR Kelsey Theater, West Windsor Campus, Mercer County Community College ''The Little Red Hen,'' a musical. $8 and $10. May 31 through June 7. Kelsey Theater, Mercer County Community College, West Windsor Campus, 1200 Old Trenton Road. [phone]; www.kelseyatmccc.org.

MUSIC AND DANCE

CLINTON Clinton Presbyterian Church ''Rumores de Paramo: Mexican American Music Celebration,'' a musical tribute to the Mexican writer Juan Rulfo. May 31 at 7:30 p.m. $12 to $23. Clinton Presbyterian Church, 91 Center Street. www.raritanrivermusic.org.

EAST RUTHERFORD Izod Center ''Hot 97 Summer Jam,'' a concert featuring hip-hop and R&B artists. June 1 at 6:30 p.m. $43 to $168. Izod Center, 50 Route 120. [phone]; www.meadow-

lands.com.

ENGLEWOOD Bergen Performing Arts Center Wayne Newton. Thursday at 8 p.m. $35 to $120. Bergen Performing Arts Center, 30 North Van Brunt Street. [phone]; www.bergenpac.org.

NEW BRUNSWICK State Theater ''Re-creating the Grateful Dead Experience,'' performed by the Dark Star Orchestra. Friday at 8 p.m. $20 to $40. State Theater, 15 Livingston Avenue. [phone]; www.statetheatre

nj.org.

NEWARK New Jersey Performing Arts Center ''An Evening With Michael Feinstein,'' featuring music from the ''Great American Songbook,'' accompanied by the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, with John Oddo. May 31 at 8 p.m. $20. Tom Chapin and Friends, family-friendly concert. May 31 and June 1. $20 and $22. New Jersey Performing Arts Center, 1 Center Street. [phone]; www.njpac.org.

OCEAN GROVE Ocean Grove Camp Meeting New Jersey State Youth Orchestra. June 1 at 3:30 p.m. Donations suggested. Ocean Grove Camp Meeting, Boardwalk Pavilion. [phone]; www.oceangrove.org.

TEANECK Mexicali Blues Cafe Vince Herman and Great American Taxi, rock. Wednesday at 9 p.m. $20. McMickle Brothers and Scott Decarlo, rock. Friday at 9 p.m. $10. The Gibson Brothers, folk. May 31 at 8 p.m. $20. Mexicali Blues Cafe, 1409 Queen Anne Road. [phone]; www.mexicalibluescafe.com.

SPOKEN WORD

ENGLEWOOD Englewood Public Library Evelyn Romanowsky Ripp, a Holocaust survivor, will discuss her new book ''The Abandoned: A Life Apart From Life.'' June 3 at 7:30 p.m. Free. Englewood Public Library, 31 Engle Street. [phone]; www.englewoodlibrary.org.

MADISONFairleigh Dickinson University ''Penny-Pinching: How to Market Your Company on a Dime,'' presented by the Rothman Institute's Female Entrepreneurs' Alliance and the New Jersey Association of Women Business Owners. Thursday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. $18.75 and $25. Fairleigh Dickinson University, 285 Madison Avenue. [phone].

WEST CALDWELL West Caldwell Public Library ''Poetry Festival: A Celebration of New Jersey's Literary Journals.'' Thirteen journals will be on display, with each represented by two poets who have been published in the journal. June 1, 1 to 5 p.m. West Caldwell Public Library, 30 Clinton Road. [phone].

THEATER

CAPE MAY Cape May Stage ''Fully Committed,'' a comedy by Becky Mode. Through June 28. $12.50 to $35. Cape May Stage, Bank and Lafayette Streets. [phone]; www.capemaystage.com.

HACKETTSTOWN Centenary Stage Company ''George M! '' a musical biography of George M. Cohan. May 25 through June 1. $8 and $10. ''Cabaret,'' musical directed by Bob Fosse. May 25 through June 1. $8 and $10. Centenary Stage Company, 400 Jefferson Street. [phone]; www.centenarystageco.org.

LONG BRANCH Dwek Studio Theater ''Women Who Steal,'' comedy by Carter W. Lewis. Through June 15. $30 to $50. Dwek Studio Theater, 179 Broadway. [phone].

MILLBURNPaper Mill Playhouse ''Little Shop of Horrors,'' musical by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken. June 4 through July 6. $25 to $95. Paper Mill Playhouse, 3 Brookside Drive. [phone]; www.papermill.org.

PERRYVILLE Hunterdon Hills Playhouse ''Last of the Red Hot Lovers,'' comedy by Neil Simon. Through June 24. $57.50 to $69.50, including entrees and dessert buffet. Hunterdon Hills Playhouse, 88 Route 173 West. [phone]; www

.hhplayhouse.com.

PRINCETONMcCarter Theater Center ''A Turnpike Runs Through It,'' musical comedy presented by the Triangle Club. Friday and May 31 at 8 p.m. $10 to $35. ''A Seagull in the Hamptons,'' contemporary adaptation by Emily Mann of ''The Seagull'' by Chekhov. Through June 8. $43 and $49. McCarter Theater Center, 91 University Place. [phone]; www.mccarter.org.

WEST WINDSOR Kelsey Theater, West Windsor Campus, Mercer County Community College ''The Full Monty,'' musical about unemployed steel workers who decide to become exotic dancers. May 30 through June 8. $10 to $16. Kelsey Theater, West Windsor Campus, Mercer County Community College, 1200 Old Trenton Road. [phone]; www.kelseyatmccc.org.

MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES

CAPE MAY Soma NewArt Gallery ''Intimate Feasts,'' paintings by Sandra Bloodworth. Through June 15. Mondays through Sundays 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Soma NewArt Gallery, 31 Perry Street. [phone]; www.somagallery.net.

CLIFTON Clifton Arts Center ''From Distant Shores,'' an exhibition of works on ocean-related themes by student artists from Clifton High School. Through June 7. $1. Clifton Arts Center, 900 Clifton Avenue. [phone].

CLINTON The Hunterdon Museum of Art ''Emil Lukas: Moderate Climate and the Bitter Bison,'' paintings and installations using nontraditional materials. Through June 15. $5. Tuesdays through Sundays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Hunterdon Museum of Art, 7 Lower Center Street. [phone]; www.hunterdonartmuseum.org.

CRANFORD Tomasulo Gallery, Union County College ''Howard Nathenson, Recent Color Still Lifes,'' photographs. Through June 26. Mondays through Thursdays and Saturdays, 1 to 4 p.m. Tomasulo Gallery, Union County College, 1033 Springfield Avenue. [phone].

ENGLEWOOD Englewood Public Library ''Lillian Slater, 5/6/21 - 3/4/08, a Retrospective: Time Past, Objects Present.'' Through May 31. Hours: Mondays through Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Englewood Public Library, 31 Engle Street. [phone]; www.englewoodlibrary.org.

ENGLEWOOD Mark Gallery Paintings by Peter Lajtai Langer. Through June 30. Free. Hours: Mondays through Saturdays 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Thursdays 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mark Gallery, 11 Grand Avenue. [phone]; www.mark-gallery.com.

ENGLEWOOD Midday Gallery ''Captive Women -- Women Captured in Art,'' an exhibition featuring paintings by four artists. Through May 31. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Midday Gallery, 8 North Dean Street. [phone]; www.middaygallery.com.

GLEN GARDNER Gallery 31 North ''The Sea I See,'' installations and sculpture by Ellen Hanauer. Through June 29. Thursdays through Sundays, 1 to 4 p.m. Gallery 31 North, Route 31 and Hunt Place. [phone].

HAMILTON Grounds for Sculpture Spring Exhibition, featuring Toshiko Takaezu and Peter Voulkos, contemporary ceramic artists. Through Sept. 28. $1 to $12; members free. Tuesdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Grounds for Sculpture, 18 Fairgrounds Road. [phone]; www.groundsforsculpture.org.

HOPEWELL Gallery 14 ''Ground Zero + 7,'' photographs by Marty Schwartz and Joanna Tully. Friday through June 22. Reception: May 25, 1 to 5 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Gallery 14, 14 Mercer Street. [phone].

LAMBERTVILLE The Coryell Gallery at the Porkyard ''View of Land and Sky,'' featuring pastels and watercolors by Pamela Malabre Miller and Barbara Gould Watts. Through June 29. Wednesdays through Sundays 12 to 5 p.m. The Coryell Gallery at the Porkyard, 8 Coryell Street. [phone].

LINCROFT Monmouth Museum ''Works in Watercolor,'' an exhibition by Michalyn Tarantino. Through May 25. ''Waldman Family Exhibition,'' featuring works by three Waldman family artists. Through June 22. ''Gustav Rosenlof -- Mobiles,'' a part of the New Jersey Emerging Artist Series. May 30 through June 29. Hours: Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Sundays, 1 to 5 p.m. $7 and $8; free for museum members, students and staff members of Brookdale Community College, and children under 2. Monmouth Museum, Brookdale Community College, Newman Springs Road. [phone]; www.monmouthmuseum.org.

MIDDLETOWN Middletown Township Public Library ''Remembering the Holocaust: Surviving the Plan,'' photographs by Jerry Casciano. Through May 31. Middletown Township Public Library, 55 New Monmouth Road. [phone].

MILLVILLE Wheaton Arts and Cultural Center ''Treasures From the Collection: Museum of American Glass,'' an exhibition of 125 glass pieces that have been collected over 40 years. Through Jan. 31. $7 to $10. Tuesdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wheaton Arts and Cultural Center, 1501 Glasstown Road (Route 55). [phone]; www.wheatonarts.org. MORRIS TOWNSHIPMorris Museum ''New Jersey Then and Now,'' featuring works from the collections of ACA Galleries and from the Morris Museum, dating as far back as 1780. Through Sept. 14. $6 to $8; free on Thursdays from 5 to 8 p.m. Hours: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursdays to 8 p.m.; Sundays, 1 to 5 p.m. Morris Museum, 6 Normandy Heights Road. [phone]; www.morrismuseum.org.

NEW BRUNSWICK Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum ''New Narratives: Contemporary Art from India,'' group exhibition of paintings, sculptures, new media art, installations and video. Through July 31. ''Painting for the Grave: The Early Work of Boris Sveshnikov,'' an exhibition featuring oil paintings and drawings produced from 1940 to 1961. Through Oct. 12. Hours: Tuesdays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, 71 Hamilton Street. [phone]; www.zimmerlimuseum.rutgers.edu.

NEW BRUNSWICK Museum of the American Hungarian Foundation ''Magyar Grafika: Hungarian Posters, Advertising and Ephemera,'' featuring 75 posters from the 1900s. Through Sept. 14. $5. Hours: Tuesdays through Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Sundays, 1 to 4 p.m. Museum of the American Hungarian Foundation, 300 Somerset Street. [phone].

NEW BRUNSWICKRutgers University, Douglass Library ''Tiger by the Tail! Women Artists of India Transforming Culture -- Part 1,'' contemporary Indian art. Through July 31. Free. Rutgers University, Douglass Library, 8 Chapel Drive. [phone]; www.libraries.rutgers.edu/rul/exhibits/dana--womens.shtml.

NEWARK City Without Walls ''1800 Frames/Take 4: The Video State of the Global Union,'' exhibition of one-minute videos. Through May 30. Free. Hours: Wednesdays through Fridays, noon to 6 p.m.; Saturdays, 1 to 6 p.m. City Without Walls, 6 Crawford Street. [phone]; www.cwow.org.

NEWARKNewark Museum ''Glass Beads of Ghana,'' glass beads made with various materials and techniques. Through June 15. ''Women's Tales: Four Leading Israeli Jewelers,'' contemporary jewelry. Through June 25. ''Small but Sublime: Intimate Views by Durand, Bierstadt and Inness.'' Through Feb. 22. $3 to $9; members, free. Hours: Wednesdays through Fridays, noon to 5 p.m.; October through June, Saturdays and Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; July through September, Saturdays and Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Newark Museum, 49 Washington Street. [phone]; www.newarkmuseum.org.

NEWARK Rupert Ravens Contemporary ''Displaced/Interventions'' and ''Stop Stealing My Face,'' paintings, prints and videos by Grace Graupe Pillard. Through June 22. Wednesdays through Sundays 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Rupert Ravens Contemporary, 85 Market Street. [phone].

PRINCETON Morven Museum and Garden ''The Nation's Capital,'' an exhibition in celebration of the 225th anniversary of Princeton's serving as America's capital for five months in 1783. June 1 through Jan. 11. Reception: May 31, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Hours: Wednesdays through Fridays, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, noon to 4 p.m. Morven Museum and Garden, 55 Stockton Street. [phone].

RIDGEWOOD Kerygma Gallery Summer Exhibition, group show of paintings and sculpture by gallery artists. Through Aug. 9. Free. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Kerygma Gallery, 38 Oak Street. [phone].

TENAFLY JCC on the Palisades ''To My Country/El Artzi,'' an exhibition of acrylics and prints by Chanan Mazal. Through May 28. JCC on the Palisades, 411 East Clinton Avenue. [phone].

TRENTON Old Barracks Museum ''Celebration of the Construction of the Barracks 250 Years Ago,'' led by Bill Schliecher. May 31 through June 1. $6 to $8. Old Barracks Museum, 101 Barrack Street. [phone].

UNION Union Public Library ''Atmospheres and Compositions of Nature,'' an exhibition of paintings by Seppo Siimes. Through Aug. 18. Union Public Library, 1980 Morris Avenue. [phone].

URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: VISUAL & PERFORMING ARTS (90%); CALENDARS (90%); LLAMA & ALPACA PRODUCTION (90%); HUMANITIES & SOCIAL SCIENCE (89%); MUSIC (87%); ARTISTS & PERFORMERS (77%); JAZZ & BLUES (77%); ART & ARTISTS (77%); FESTIVALS (75%); HIP HOP CULTURE (72%); DANCE (72%); WILDLIFE (70%); WILDLIFE CONSERVATION (70%); COMMUNITY COLLEGES (69%); RAP MUSIC (66%); THEATER (57%); WRITERS & WRITING (50%); PROTESTANTS & PROTESTANTISM (85%); PUBLIC LIBRARIES (64%)
ORGANIZATION: MONMOUTH UNIVERSITY (59%)
PERSON: MICHAEL MCMAHON (50%)
GEOGRAPHIC: OLYMPIA, WA, USA (86%) NEW JERSEY, USA (93%); WASHINGTON, USA (86%) UNITED STATES (93%)
LOAD-DATE: May 25, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: CLINTON: ''Log Cabin: Sunshine and Shadow,''(1915-1920) made of cotton and silk, from the exhibition ''Just Sew! Quilts From 1850-1930.'' Through Oct. 9. Adults, $8

seniors, $6

children 6 to 12, $5

members and children under 6, free. Hours: Tuesdays through Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Red Mill Museum Village, 56 Main Street. [phone]

www.theredmill.org/ (pg. NJ12)

MIDDLETOWN: The short film ''Little Terrorist,'' directed by Ashvin Kumar, is among the offerings at the South Asian Film Festival from 6 to 8:45 p.m. on June 2. Indian food will be served after the screenings. Free. Middletown Township Public Library, 55 New Monmouth Road. [phone]. (PHOTOGRAPH BY APOLLO CINEMA) (pg. NJ13)

ENGLEWOOD: Bergen Performing Arts Center George Carlin will perform stand-up comedy at the Bergen Performing Arts Center on Friday at 7 and 10 p.m. Tickets are $28 to $100. 30 North Van Brunt Street. [phone]

www.bergen- pac.org. (PHOTOGRAPH BY ASSOCIATED PRESS) (pg. NJ17)
DOCUMENT-TYPE: Schedule
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

734 of 1231 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
May 25, 2008 Sunday

Late Edition - Final

Balancing Art and Business
BYLINE: By BENJAMIN GENOCCHIO
SECTION: Section LI; Column 0; Long Island Weekly Desk; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1929 words
PETER C. SUTTON looked a little weary as he presided over a senior staff meeting at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Conn. Dr. Sutton had just returned the night before from a business trip to Japan, where he had given a lecture on Vermeer and the Delft School, his specialty, and discussed loans of artworks for future shows at the Bruce. Now he was listening as Nancy Hall-Duncan, senior curator of art, reported on plans for a 2009 show devoted to the French Impressionist painter Alfred Sisley.

Ms. Hall-Duncan's summary, which included details of loan requests and a complementary costume exhibition, was as close as Mr. Sutton would get to working with art that day. Earlier that morning he had met with a board member, then attended a governance committee meeting. Immediately after the staff briefing came another meeting, one with visiting members of the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism. By 6 p.m. he had left the museum, heading to what he called a ''donor cultivation event'' at the home of a local collector.

''I am lucky if I get an hour a day dealing with art,'' Dr. Sutton said, after a quick break between meetings to countersign a batch of checks, return phone calls and answer e-mail messages. ''It sounds glamorous, but running a museum is a whole lot of administration and organization. I sit on 12 different committees, and when I am not sitting in meetings, here I am raising money from patrons and donors.''

Dr. Sutton's is a familiar refrain throughout the region.

''One way or another it just eats into your day,'' said Erik H. Neil, director of the Heckscher Museum of Art in Huntington. Last month Dr. Neil completed a $1.5 million renovation of the museum's historic building with money raised from public and private sources. ''Even if you are not at an event or asking a patron for money to support a program, you are always on the lookout for new patrons and potential supporters.''

With an annual operating budget of $4.9 million and 40 employees, the Bruce does 14 shows a year, attracting about 100,000 visitors, including 12,000 schoolchildren.

''Directors are responsible not only for overall administration,'' Dr. Sutton said, ''but also the financial stability of the institution, which means both the expenditure and revenue.''

Dr. Sutton, who was director of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford before coming to the Bruce in August 2001, is not alone in devoting a great deal of his time to administrative matters. Take Michael Botwinick, the director of the Hudson River Museum in Yonkers, who spent a morning several weeks ago studying changes to the museum's insurance policies. ''It is pretty boring stuff, but incredibly important,'' he said. The same morning, Mary Sue Sweeney Price, director of the Newark Museum, had started her day attending a city-sponsored meeting on diversity in the workplace.

Mrs. Price, who has been the head of the museum for 15 years, is also a former president of the Association of Art Museum Directors.

''These days, to be a successful art museum director,'' she said, ''you have to get sustenance from knowing that you may not have the good fortune to be dealing with art and exhibitions all day, but that the broad range of responsibilities and duties which you are expected to perform make it possible for others on the staff to make it happen.''

As an older generation of museum directors begins to retire, there are an unprecedented number of vacancies in the field; in the last six months alone, there have been openings for directors at more than two dozen major American art museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the Dia Art Foundation in Manhattan; the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth; the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis; and the Phillips Collection in Washington.

Similarly, there are numerous current or imminent vacancies at museums outside of Manhattan. At the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art in New Paltz, Neil C. Trager is retiring next month after more than 26 years. There are also vacancies at the Princeton University Art Museum, where Susan Taylor, who has been on leave since mid-January, will officially depart at the end of June; at the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum on the Rutgers University campus in New Brunswick, N.J., where Greg Perry left on Dec. 31; and at the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art in Peekskill, which has had three directors in the last three years.

Vacancies were recently filled at two high-profile museums in the region. Terrie Sultan joined the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton on April 1, replacing Trudy C. Kramer, who had been director for 26 years. Susan Lubowsky Talbott is taking the top job this month at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, which had been vacant for more than a year.

Salaries paid to museum directors are ''disparate,'' Mrs. Price said, depending on the candidates' skills and ''where an institution is in its life cycle.''

Generally, however, ''in nonprofits there is still a huge difference in resources available in comparison to the corporate sector,'' she said.

The changing of the guard at museums often brings with it a renewed emphasis on financial stability, particularly at successful regional museums, which rarely have the large endowments bestowed on their urban counterparts.

''The director's job description has metamorphosed over the last decade as museums have grown in size and are increasingly expected to generate their own revenue,'' Mrs. Price said. ''Obviously, in addition to traditional attributes of connoisseurship and scholarship, candidates for director jobs these days also need to have skills in management, business and other areas like marketing, new technology and, of course, resource gathering, which is more popularly known as fund-raising. And I would probably put this last one top of the list.''

During Mrs. Price's 15-year tenure, the Newark Museum's operating budget has more than tripled, growing to $18 million from $5.6 million. When she joined the museum, 85 percent of the operating budget came from city and state funding, she said. These days it is closer to 60 percent, and Mrs. Price says she spends about 40 to 50 percent of her time working directly or indirectly on fund-raising activities.

Fund-raising and the constant pressure to get more people through the door -- audience numbers are an important measure of success, especially for government funding bodies -- are responsibilities that directors of regional museums have in common with their counterparts in major cities. But there are significant differences, clustering around issues of scale, staffing levels and community involvement.

In general, regional art museums tend to be small to medium in size, with operating budgets of $1 million to $10 million. (As a point of comparison, the Metropolitan Museum of Art has an annual operating budget of $200 million.) They survive from one year to the next on very tight margins, raising money to put on shows with little endowment to fall back on in hard times. They also tend to give priority to programming rather than people, so they are frequently understaffed. Multitasking is common, even among directors. Dr. Neil of the Heckscher said that at one recent fund-raiser he did everything from setting up tables to giving the welcoming speech.

But the most striking difference between metropolitan and regional art museums is their relationship to their community. ''It tends to be much more organic'' in the suburban museums, Mr. Botwinick said, referring to their focus on local audience and outreach.

By contrast, tourists and casual visitors tend to form the core metropolitan museum audience.

''The people who come to a regional museum are usually from the local area and use it genuinely by choice,'' Mr. Botwinick said. ''They see it as part of the fabric of the community and often have a sense of ownership over it and certain expectations about what it provides.''

Mr. Botwinick believes this kind of relationship to a local community is the best -- and the most challenging -- aspect of running a regional art museum.

''It is about understanding what your place is, what your mission is, and being comfortable with that,'' he said. ''But it is also about understanding that this goal doesn't let you off the hook on the highest standards and scholarship. This is not some alternative, dumbed-down version of the real thing. You are part of a national conversation on matters of art and culture, and informed visitors expect the very highest standards.''

Ms. Sultan, 55, the new director of the Parrish Museum, who came from the Blaffer Gallery, the Art Museum of the University of Houston, said she wants the Parrish ''to be known for strong local ties but also to have a more global outlook.''

''I want to be part of a national and global museum network,'' she said.

However, she said: ''To be successful the Parrish has to be a center for community engagement. What matters is how you define community. I'd also like to see us take a leadership role among Long Island museums.''

At the Bruce Museum, where the vast majority of visitors are from a 30-mile radius, ''we cater very much to the local community and do tailor our offerings,'' Dr. Sutton said.

''At the same time, we also try to mix things up, with shows ranging from old masters to contemporary art, with research catalogs and loans from collectors and museums,'' he said. ''It is all about striking the right balance between responsibilities to the community and maintaining a commitment to professional, quality programming.''

To meet those standards, many regional art museums have had to be entrepreneurial, partnering with other institutions to make shows happen or drawing on all the talents and connections of the staff and board. Some regional museum directors continue to curate shows, like Harry Philbrick, at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Conn., who spent a recent day trying to organize the manufacture of 50,000 camouflage-colored tennis balls in China for an outdoor installation by Serge Spitzer. He eventually found a factory in Shanghai that could do it for him.

''As a noncollecting museum, the Aldrich is focused on exhibitions, so I probably have a bit more contact with art and artists than directors at other museums,'' Mr. Philbrick said. ''But it is true that a lot of your time is spent doing things that don't seem to have a lot to do with art.''

Despite his busy schedule, Dr. Sutton recently found the time to curate an exhibition at the Bruce devoted to old master works from the collection of Jacques Goudstikker, a Dutch-Jewish art dealer whose gallery was plundered by the Nazis. Given his expertise in Dutch and Baroque art, the show, which opened this month, was a natural fit for Dr. Sutton, who started as a curator of European art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. But even for a show like the Goudstikker, which received $40,000 in a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, he said he spent more time fund-raising than anything else.

Ms. Sultan at the Parrish is determined to try to balance her business and art interests. ''I have a lot of energy and care very deeply about museum management,'' she said. ''But I am in this business because I love art, so I try to make sure that one part of every day at work has something to do with art. I am very directed about that.''