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 >