Folk Art Museum - NYTimes.com In "For Arts Institutions, Thinking Big Can Be Suicidal" (Arts pages, June 28), Carroll Joynes, a founder and senior fellow at the Cultural Policy Center of the University of Chicago, refers to the American Folk Art Museum, saying it "was a wonderful museum and they self-destructed." I can assure you that we are alive and well. A museum is more than a building; its heart and soul - its exhibitions, its programs and its collection - are its mission. A key part of our reinvigorated mandate is to "get the art out there," and our collection is on view in three simultaneous installations: "Jubilation/Rumination," at our flagship Lincoln Square location; "Compass," which opened last month at the South Street Seaport Museum; and 14 major works in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's recently reopened American Wing. Additionally, the museum has recently added three new trustees, eliminated its debt and commenced a search for a new executive director. We offer numerous educational, artistic and music events at Lincoln Square every week and are operating in the black on a yearly budget of about $3.5 million. To quote Mark Twain, reports of our death are greatly exaggerated. The American Folk Art Museum continues to play a vibrant, exciting and important role in the cultural ecology of New York City. MONTY BLANCHARD President, Board of Trustees American Folk Art Museum New York, July 3, 2012