At our historic house museum, we do charge an admission and are actually considering raising it within the next few years; we also have a sign hanging in our Visitor Center that gives the estimated cost per visitor to have the Museum open that day, we charge $12 for their tour but it actually costs us something like $22. This is hung right near our donation box. Last year we also invested in a much more  interesting donation box than the square, boring and sadly cardboard box the Museum had been using for decades. We commissioned a local artist to make us a wooden box inspired by the work of the artist our historic house interprets. It’s a beautiful box and we’ve found that donations have significantly increased when there was something more fun and interesting to put their money in. The sign above it simply reads “Contributions” and gives our mission statement. Yes, it cost us money to make the box, but I’m pretty sure the box had paid for itself within a few months of it being used and donations kept climbing from there.

 

I’ve found the discussion of should museums charge admission to be a very interesting one that has really escalated over the past few months; I’m sure many of you saw the article in the New York times that REALLY sparked a discussion about this. We all know funding for museums and historic sites is tight and while admission will never fully support the operating budget, it certainly is a nice supplement and plays a roll in keeping the doors open – at least it does for my institution. Small museums really operate in the same way as small businesses and while many of us are non-profits we still have bills, staff and preservation projects that need to be funded. I’d love to see free admission to places, but unless major money is coming from somewhere else to allow that to happen I don’t see it being an effective way to increase visitation. I also feel that “suggested donations” for admission are misleading and make people feel guilty if they don’t give the suggested donation – “is it free or not?” – the ambiguity that suggested donations create is only a hindrance to your visitors and their experience of your site. 

 

Laura Heemer
Assistant Curator
Director of Programs & Membership
Wharton Esherick Museum

"If it's not fun, it's not worth doing." -Wharton Esherick
www.whartonesherickmuseum.org

---

To unsubscribe from the MUSEUM-L list, click the following link:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-HOME.exe?SUBED1=MUSEUM-L&A=1