>A low or non-existent admission encourages visitors to come back
>more often, thus increasing the patron count and the retail sales.
>Most visitors probably won't be able to afford several visits to an
>exhibition if the admission price is high.

Most museums recognize that stores and food services will benefit
from increased attendance, but attention to those ancillary income
streams can take away space for programming.  At the new Milwaukee
Art Museum you have to go through the store to get to the permanent
exhibit galleries.  Even then, the most successful museum stores
seldom generate more than $3 per visitor.

>It would be interesting to compare the amount of private support
>received by museums that don't charge admission versus museums that
>do. Has a study like this ever been conducted?

I don't know of a formal study, but I work with these kinds of
numbers all the time in my planning work.  The difficulty is that
there is no easy way to compare any two museums, much less a broad
category.  Each one has different goals, different circumstances, and
widely different programs and activities. Large urban art museums
often have a substantial endowment and some city funding coupled to a
long-standing mandate to provide free admission. This is why the Met
asks for "voluntary" contributions. Museums in NY like the Whitney
and MoMA get no subsidy and charge $10 or $12.  MFA Boston does not
get a city subsidy and charges $14 for general admission.  They also
want $20 to see their current show "Impressionist Still Life."

Museum directors and boards fully understand that every dollar
increase in admission fee results in a reduction in attendance and
especially disenfranchises those with little money. But it comes down
to the old saw about the greatest good for the greatest number.  The
income allows the museum to share an exhibit it could not otherwise
mount.  If the museum did not mount the exhibit, the only people who
would see it would be those who could afford to travel to another
city.  That would certainly disenfranchise even more people than the
higher admission price.

We all agree (I think) that all museums should be free. We also know
what people are willing to pay to go to a movie or to an amusement
park or to DisneyLand.  We need to be responsible about what we
charge (and $34 to visit the MFA does seem outrageous), but we also
need to be able to get people to support and value our work.  Finding
the right balance is never easy, but sometimes admission fees are the
best way to gain that support.



------------------------------------------------------
Guy Hermann
8 1/2 Godfrey Street
Mystic, CT 06355

home: 860-536-2994
cell: 860-857-7363


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