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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