First of all, charging a separate admission fee to offset the costs of
bringing in a traveling exhibition is not only common, it is a reasonable
way of raising revenue for a museum. (IMHO, of course) Welcome to the
modern world.

Second of all, let's define "Non-Profit." The term has no relationship to
whether or not the institution can earn revenue in excess of expenses. It
is specifically related to the federally defined tax status of the museum.

Really.

Any non-profit institution that does not attempt to raise more money
than it spends is not only in danger of collapsing in on itself, it is
acting in a fiscally irresponsible manner.

Diane "Just call me Ms. Fiscal Responsibility" Gutenkauf

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
>Behalf Of Aikens, Jason
>Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2002 9:05 AM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Admission fees for special exhibits
>
>
>To All:
>
>Recently I visited a non-profit museum which was currently having a special
>exhibit.  I would not like to mention the specific name of the museum or
the
>exhibit.  The museum had a regular admission price of around $8 and charged
>an additional $8 to see their new special exhibit.  The museum also
required
>that if anyone wanted to see the special exhibit, they must also pay for
>regular admission to the museum.  I was offended by the price gauging of
>this institution.
>
>I was wondering if it anyone out there had any other similar experiences
>like this at another non-profit museum.  Is it common for museums to charge
>additional fees to see special exhibits?  I can understand a dollar or two
>but nearly $8 seems quite high and requiring visitors to pay for regular
>admission as well as special exhibit fees seems a bit much don't you think?
>Isn't this a violation of federal non-profit standards?
>
>Jason Aikens

=========================================================
Important Subscriber Information:

The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes).

If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).