This is so dependent on so many factors that it is almost like
forecasting the weather. In brief, when we made our museum admission a
voluntary donation, attendance surged. When we began to charge a small
amount for lectures, attendance surged. 
Same community, slightly different audiences...
Ruth 

Ruth S. Taylor
Executive Director
Newport Historical Society
www.newporthistorical.org
401-846-0813

-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of HHS Director
Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2010 12:46 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: SPAM-LOW: Re: [MUSEUM-L] Admission pros and cons

It IS a complicated subject. We are a private non-profit institution
with a
house museum that's open for 12 weeks in the summer. We have also been
told
that increasing our admission fees would help people feel that they were
getting more bang for their buck. We did so two years ago and saw no
significant decrease or increase in admissions. Previous to that, our
admission fee had been the same ($3) for many years. We would have
raised
the cost regardless, because we need to take advantage of every possible
source of income to help offset rising operating costs.

I could end there, but we made an interesting discovery this past
summer,
when an anonymous donor underwrote the cost of admission to our house
museum
for 1 month. Attendance surged, and despite the "free admission", most
visitors dropped into our donation box an amount that ended up averaging
about what that admission would have cost. 

In the end, however, we didn't make a profit on this endeavor, because
we
had already spent the extra on advertising the free admission. For
various
reasons, we will continue to charge admission to our museum: it's a
reasonable fee, and we want to continue to keep people aware that there
are
costs to preservation. But we will also continue our "freebie" month
every
year because we also discovered that it brought in a clientele that we
usually do not see, and we value outreach of this kind over profit at
our
House Museum.

As I'm continuing to learn after 25+ years in this business, there is no
absolute right or wrong way, just what works for your institution and
your
community. 

Suzanne Buchanan
Hingham Historical Society
P.O. Box 434 Hingham, MA 02043
781-749-7721
www.hinghamhistorical.org

-----Original Message-----
From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf
Of Heather McClenahan
Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2010 11:06 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] Admission pros and cons

We do not charge admission for two reason: 1) Your tax dollars at  
work. About a third of our operating budget is supplied by our county  
government, and we don't think residents ought to pay us twice. 2) The  
science museum two blocks away from us is run by Los Alamos National  
Laboratory. Since it is also a taxpayer-funded institution, it doesn't  
charge admission. There's no way we could "compete."

When it comes to museums, I don't buy the "perceived value of the  
experience" argument. The Smithsonian doesn't charge admission, and  
how can you get a better museum experience than that?

Heather McClenahan, assistant museum director
Los Alamos Historical Society
http://www.losalamoshistory.org
[log in to unmask]
PO Box 43
1050 Bathtub Row
Los Alamos, NM 87544
505-662-6272 (office)
505-470-2912 (cell)

  Quoting Casandra Karl <[log in to unmask]>:

> Hello all!
>
> I recently had a discussion with the Director of a small local   
> historical museum regarding the pros and cons of charging an   
> admission fee to museum visitors (she casually asked for my opinion   
> and it turned into a *huge* discussion).  She argued that charging   
> admission would reduce visitorship and not really generate much   
> income anyway (I actually agree with the second point somewhat).  I   
> argued that charging a small amount (say $2) would increase the   
> perceived value of the experience and give the museum a bargaining   
> chip by offering "free admission" to members or for special days or   
> events.
>
> Does your museum charge admission?  What factors influenced the   
> decision of whether or not to charge admission at your institution?   
>  If you can cite evidence/resources to back-up your position, that   
> would be helpful as well.
>
> Thank you.
>
> -Cass
>
> =========================================================
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