This is a really good read for everyone outraged about the Met charging a
flat fee for out of state visitors.  If you have visitors that get testy
about your museum charging -- show them this:

You Want "Free" Museums? Then Show Me The Money!
<http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Exhibitricks/~3/cmtVbs7TpYc/you-want-free-museums-then-show-me-money.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email>

Posted: 07 Jan 2018 12:07 PM PST by Paul Orselli of ExhibiTricks

http://blog.orselli.net/

Recently the Metropolitan Museum of Art <https://www.metmuseum.org/> announced
it was changing its entrance fee policies.

And immediately a torrent of outrage and pearl-clutching was unleashed into
the Internet echo chamber by museum workers and art critics and culture
supporters of all stripes. Basically, the social media grousing was about
equally divided between those who said "all museums should be free!" and
folks who characterized the people running The Met as heartless philistines
(or worse!)

In an ideal world, every museum would be open to all, and not charge any
admissions fees.  I am with you there 100%.  But how do we make that happen
in a practical, and sustainable, way?

In the real world, somebody (or some entity) pays for free admissions
policies --- and that usually boils down to rich people and/or governments
giving money to museums. That money almost always has various strings
attached, and not every museum has access to the recurring rich people's
money and/or government funding to make that happen.

In places where most of the museums are "free" (like Washington D.C. or St.
Louis, for example) taxes or voter-approved funding structures pave the way
for "free" admission.  Somebody is still paying to keep the museum running,
but not through the direct contributions of visitors through the door.

I understand The Met is an easy target for outrage (for lots of reasons
beyond admissions policies) but let's looks at some numbers:

• Recent articles
<https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2018/01/metropolitan-museum-of-art-makes-changes-to-admissions-prices>indicate
that only 17 percent of Met visitors pay the full suggested admission of
$25; the average person pays $9.  So let's just set aside the egalitarian
notion of "suggested admissions" or "pay what you can" policies.  There are
people visiting The Met who *can* pay more to get in, and choose not to.
If The Met wants to make it harder for rich tourists to cheap out on paying
their fair share to see the Museum, I say go for it!  (The real question is
how to provide universal museum access for the truly needy, not just
thrifty yuppies.)

• How much would it actually cost to make up the "lost" admission revenue
at The Met annually if there were no admission charge?  Recent attendance
figures <https://www.metmuseum.org/press/news/2016/annual-attendance> at
The Met topped 6.7 million visitors.
So if you multiply that by the suggested admission fee of $25 you get a
figure of over *167* *million dollars* annually. More than the 148 million
dollars annual budget
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/trump-wants-to-kill-federal-arts-funding-what-difference-would-that-make/2017/06/06/3528a9c8-26a3-11e7-bb9d-8cd6118e1409_story.html?utm_term=.f8b66792d147>
of
the National Endowment of the Arts.  For just *one* museum! And that
doesn't even take into account the Association of Art Museum Directors 2016
report
<https://aamd.org/sites/default/files/document/Art%20Museums%20By%20the%20Numbers%202016.pdf>
findings
that show the actual average cost of serving art museum visitors is closer
to $55 per person. So museums are already subsidizing the costs of
visitation in most cases.

• Beyond admissions prices and policies, does no-cost museum entry really
provide the sort of universal access we would hope for?  Check out this blog
post
<https://www.colleendilen.com/2015/08/12/how-free-admission-really-affects-museum-attendance-data/>
 by Colleen Dilenschneider for some data and links regarding that very
question. *(Spoiler alert: f**ree admission is far from the engagement
cure-all that some of its supporters believe it is.)*

So while I understand, on an emotional level, the pissed-off people
shouting slogans or comparing The Met to Marie Antoinette on the Web, I'm
afraid that alone isn't going to change the crappy, unsustainable business
models of cultural institutions.

I think our challenges to improve museum access can be both "big picture"
(using the example of the funding structure of public libraries as a good
starting point for political action and advocacy) and "intensely local"
(what is one way we as museum workers can help a local museum to increase
its access to all people?)

Those sorts of efforts might not provide the noisy, immediate gratification
of social media posts about free admission policies but I think they can
create longer-term impacts for both our museums and our communities.

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