May I offer a perspective from the UK on this important topic which has
a very direct bearing on the future of mechanical music in society.

The UK is, perhaps, a little different to the US in that the major
private collections have usually tended to be open to the public.
Indeed, my own interest was developed through visiting to the private
collection of Charles Hart in St Albans in the late 1960s, which was
open to the public every Sunday afternoon (and remains so to this day
as "St Albans Organ Theatre").

Similar private collections, developed by George Cushing and Paul
Corin, were also open on a regular basis.  Visits to these collections
were enormously beneficial in developing my own interest and I owe
a great debt of gratitude to their founders, and most especially,
Charles Hart himself.  Had the meagre public collections been the only
place to see mechanical music in the UK, I doubt that my interest in
mechanical music would ever have been sparked.

In the case of the Charles Hart and George Cushing collections, their
survival has been achieved through the creation of charitable trusts
during the lifetime of the owner.  A similar initiative is now underway
at Amersham to safeguard the very fine collection of fairground organs
assembled by Ted Reed.  This approach, if managed carefully, has the
potential to achieve the best of both worlds in that those involved
with the charitable trusts may have a greater level of concern and
understanding of the instruments, than would those of a public body.

Nevertheless, recent times have found increased costs, health and
safety regulation, competition from other leisure attractions and,
perhaps, growing public ignorance of what mechanical music is, making
life no easier.  How they will be regarded by future generations and
whether they can maintain viability, is very much open to question.
It is self-evident that the founders of all these collections were
fairly wealthy individuals who, fortunately, adopted a reasonably
philanthropic attitude in making them available to a wider audience,
but the charitable trusts now have to stand on their own feet.

I think my own ideal is that places should exist where instruments
can still truly "earn their keep" or, at least, contribute towards it.
To this end, in the UK, those who genuinely present organs on
fairground rides are to be very much applauded.  Looking across the
English Channel, those who take organs out on the streets of the
Netherlands are doing an excellent job too.  Only last November, those
on the Mechanical Organ Owners' Society European tour had the pleasure
of listening to "De Kleine Radio" in the perfect setting of the
streets of Alkmaar.

As a dance organ fan at heart, however, I have to say that a real 
dance tent with a 121-key Decap takes some beating.  Just look at the
following for real atmosphere and enjoyment:

  http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-hDOzoxMscs

The vast majority of the people here were local inhabitants from the
village, not mechanical music enthusiasts or serious minded museum
visitors.  No, they were here for the fun of the occasion!  And this
was not in the 50s or 60s, but in Belgium, in August 2007, where I had
great pleasure in attending.

As a dance organ owner, can I do anything to achieve this ideal?
Ironically, despite my lifelong wish to present dance organs to the
widest audience, for some of the very reasons a cited earlier, I have
chosen to pursue a career outside the world of mechanical music and
have ended up as a private collector, without the means to make my
instruments as publicly accessible as I would wish.

Nevertheless, in the longer term, I do hope that I can present my
instruments to a wider audience and it would be all the more fantastic
if this could be in the setting of a dance tent or café for which they
were designed.  In other words, put the instrument in the right place
and let it speak for itself!  Perhaps this is part of the way of keeping
real interest alive and instruments properly cared for, for the benefit
of future generations.

Peter Craig (Hertfordshire, UK)