After getting the AAM's MAT alert on the proposed, scary elimination of
$90 million from the NEA, your move is somewhat a bold one.   What would
be the benefit of no admissions?  Do you count with a foundation to
support your normal operations and salaries?  If you've got those two
covered, I guess eliminating admission charges would help.  There are a
number of museums who operate on a donation basis only, I think the
Timken Gallery in San Diego, CA still operates that way, and the Brea
Gallery in Brea, CA does as well.  But I would suspect they have city
funding, and they are not in depressed areas.  I would be very interested
in the responses you get.

O
Olivia S. Anastasiadis, Curator
Richard Nixon Library & Birthplace
Yorba Linda, CA  92886
(714) 993-5075 ext. 224; fax (714) 528-0544


On Thu, 19 Jun 1997 11:01:09 +1200 Mark Clayton <[log in to unmask]>
writes:
>We operate a regional museum and gallery in a city of about 55,000
>people. The region is economically depressed and its inhabitants are,
>for the most part, from the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum.
>This factor, combined with a comparatively low visitation rate, have
>led us to consider doing away altogether with admission charges and
>possibly replacing them, instead, with a donation system.
>
>Staff here feel that donations would probably exceed admissions
>income, although this is more an intuitive rather than a experiential
>assessment. Is anyone out there able to comment on what results we
>might expect, based on their recent experience of having abolished
>admission charges?
>
>Mark Clayton
>Hawke's Bay Cultural Trut
>