Each museum's approach to admission charges is driven by multiple factors. Some museum's have significant endowments, some have government or university subsidies, others have neither endowment or subsidy. The former can afford to offer free admission because they have other sources of revenue to support their curators, collections, and operations. The later must charge admission to cover their costs. Most museums that do charge admission try to keep it as low as they can in order to increase visitation. Below a certain point, they can't generate enough revenue to pay people's salaries and the museum would have to close. Charging an additional fee for special exhibits is very common. Many museums simply cannot afford to pay the costs of renting, shipping, and insuring a really special exhibit without charging visitors something. This fee is in addition to corporate sponsorships that the museum may get. Most museums do try to match the fee to the actual costs of the exhibit and smaller exhibits may well be free. The case you cite where the general admission and special exhibit admission are equal is likely because of the configuration of the exhibit areas (no separate entrance/exit). If you can't get to the special exhibit without going through the general exhibit area, then they have to charge you for both. Non-profit status is fundamentally about where the profits go. In a for-profit business the goal is to generate profits for the investors. In a not-for-profit any revenues that exceed expenses ("earnings" or "profits"), if any, must be retained by the museum. The IRS can still tax some of the earnings of a not-for-profit, if they were earned in connection with activities unrelated to the museum's mission. What it comes down to is that there are many different ways museums keep themselves fiscally solvent. It is too bad that many do have to charge to bring in interesting exhibits--or to simply keep their doors open. But it is better that the doors are open at a cost than closed to everyone. Guy >Recently I visited a non-profit museum which was currently having a special >exhibit. I would not like to mention the specific name of the museum or the >exhibit. The museum had a regular admission price of around $8 and charged >an additional $8 to see their new special exhibit. The museum also required >that if anyone wanted to see the special exhibit, they must also pay for >regular admission to the museum. I was offended by the price gauging of >this institution. > >I was wondering if it anyone out there had any other similar experiences >like this at another non-profit museum. Is it common for museums to charge >additional fees to see special exhibits? I can understand a dollar or two >but nearly $8 seems quite high and requiring visitors to pay for regular >admission as well as special exhibit fees seems a bit much don't you think? >Isn't this a violation of federal non-profit standards? ------------------------------------------------------ Guy Hermann 8 1/2 Godfrey Street Mystic, CT 06355 home: 860-536-2994 cell: 860-857-7363 ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).