Suzanne- thank you for sharing your experience- your comments were very helpful. This institution has tried a "suggested donation" and it has not been very successful. I like the idea of having a whole free month (as opposed to one day a month or something) to bring in the people who can't or don't want to pay. This seems like it might be a reasonable compromise. Ruth- Your story intrigues me... Could it be that your museum attendance would have grown regardless of the changes in admission? Did you have any other initiatives that coincided with that? Or maybe a change in the demographics of your community? On Wed, Dec 15, 2010 at 2:43 PM, Ruth Taylor <[log in to unmask]>wrote: > This is so dependent on so many factors that it is almost like > forecasting the weather. In brief, when we made our museum admission a > voluntary donation, attendance surged. When we began to charge a small > amount for lectures, attendance surged. > Same community, slightly different audiences... > Ruth > > Ruth S. Taylor > Executive Director > Newport Historical Society > www.newporthistorical.org > 401-846-0813 > > -----Original Message----- > From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On > Behalf Of HHS Director > Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2010 12:46 PM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: SPAM-LOW: Re: [MUSEUM-L] Admission pros and cons > > It IS a complicated subject. We are a private non-profit institution > with a > house museum that's open for 12 weeks in the summer. We have also been > told > that increasing our admission fees would help people feel that they were > getting more bang for their buck. We did so two years ago and saw no > significant decrease or increase in admissions. Previous to that, our > admission fee had been the same ($3) for many years. We would have > raised > the cost regardless, because we need to take advantage of every possible > source of income to help offset rising operating costs. > > I could end there, but we made an interesting discovery this past > summer, > when an anonymous donor underwrote the cost of admission to our house > museum > for 1 month. Attendance surged, and despite the "free admission", most > visitors dropped into our donation box an amount that ended up averaging > about what that admission would have cost. > > In the end, however, we didn't make a profit on this endeavor, because > we > had already spent the extra on advertising the free admission. For > various > reasons, we will continue to charge admission to our museum: it's a > reasonable fee, and we want to continue to keep people aware that there > are > costs to preservation. But we will also continue our "freebie" month > every > year because we also discovered that it brought in a clientele that we > usually do not see, and we value outreach of this kind over profit at > our > House Museum. > > As I'm continuing to learn after 25+ years in this business, there is no > absolute right or wrong way, just what works for your institution and > your > community. > > Suzanne Buchanan > Hingham Historical Society > P.O. Box 434 Hingham, MA 02043 > 781-749-7721 > www.hinghamhistorical.org > > -----Original Message----- > From: Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On > Behalf > Of Heather McClenahan > Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2010 11:06 AM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Re: [MUSEUM-L] Admission pros and cons > > We do not charge admission for two reason: 1) Your tax dollars at > work. About a third of our operating budget is supplied by our county > government, and we don't think residents ought to pay us twice. 2) The > science museum two blocks away from us is run by Los Alamos National > Laboratory. Since it is also a taxpayer-funded institution, it doesn't > charge admission. There's no way we could "compete." > > When it comes to museums, I don't buy the "perceived value of the > experience" argument. The Smithsonian doesn't charge admission, and > how can you get a better museum experience than that? > > Heather McClenahan, assistant museum director > Los Alamos Historical Society > http://www.losalamoshistory.org > [log in to unmask] > PO Box 43 > 1050 Bathtub Row > Los Alamos, NM 87544 > 505-662-6272 (office) > 505-470-2912 (cell) > > Quoting Casandra Karl <[log in to unmask]>: > > > Hello all! > > > > I recently had a discussion with the Director of a small local > > historical museum regarding the pros and cons of charging an > > admission fee to museum visitors (she casually asked for my opinion > > and it turned into a *huge* discussion). She argued that charging > > admission would reduce visitorship and not really generate much > > income anyway (I actually agree with the second point somewhat). I > > argued that charging a small amount (say $2) would increase the > > perceived value of the experience and give the museum a bargaining > > chip by offering "free admission" to members or for special days or > > events. > > > > Does your museum charge admission? What factors influenced the > > decision of whether or not to charge admission at your institution? > > If you can cite evidence/resources to back-up your position, that > > would be helpful as well. > > > > Thank you. > > > > -Cass > > > > ========================================================= > > 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] . 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