One way of increasing museum visitations is perhaps dropping entrance fee.
This could have a major effect on access and will improve the demographic
picture especially in museums of modern art.

For those of you have dropped entrance fee, have you seen a surge in
attendance? I am interested to know how many are there who believe in this
practice/phenomenon?

Thank you,


Hanna

-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf
Of christopher whittle
Sent: Friday, April 01, 2005 9:01 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Museums vs TV

In response to Claudia's comment about museums not reaching all people-
museums reach very few people- about 14% (Hood in her thesis on Toronto art
museum visitors) and of those "reached" they spend very few hours / year in
a museum.  It would be an unusual visitor who spends more than 10 hours a
year in a particular museum.

I think museums are overrated on their informal educational potential.  If
we were truly interested in informing the public we would use entertainment
(not educational ) television because that is how America spends its leasure
time.  Get a Van Gogh or a dinosaur bone on Friends or CSI and you have the
potential to teach tens of millions per night.  I suspect that all museums
in the US might draw that many in a year.....


Claudia said:

   During my museum "hiatus" I worked as a supermarket cashier (we still had
to eat), and I can tell you that I no longer believe museums (many) reach
all of the public.  Although I have not yet figured out what we would need
to do to reach a public that is unacquainted with the word "curator" and
doesn't know or value history (at least, in my world of history museums), I
hope to have that kind of epiphany soon.  Certainly my interim work will
inform my new work in ways I don't yet understand.



   Best wishes to all,

   Claudia



   Claudia J. Nicholson

   Executive Director

   North Star Museum of Boy Scouting and Girl Scouting

   651-739-8857

   [log in to unmask]

   www.nssm.org




Christopher H. Whittle, Ph.D.
Research Fellow, Center for Inquiry &
Faculty, Department of Learning and Instruction
State University of New York, Buffalo
716-645-2455 ext. 1136
3925 Rensch Road, Amherst, NY 14228
[log in to unmask] / [log in to unmask]

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