Absolutely not, the Smithsonian should not charge admission. It is a
guardian and a steward of objects held in public trust by the American
people. As soon as admission fees are taken at the door, a museum
discriminates against a certain public, and in discriminating that
museum ceases to be public. Charge admission for the Smithsonian? Why
not make public library collections pay per view? Certainly there will
have to be cuts in areas and in the visitor experience, but do not
exclude certain members of the public from participating in the
experience, whatever it may be.
However, as a compromise, free admission with proof of American
citizenship, perhaps the only good use for the proposed ID cards, and
paid admission for non-US citizens. Wait though, (note I am not being
facetious at this point) this would exclude the population of
undocumented workers living in the US. So no, no admission fees.
Jacob Thomas
M.A. International Museum Studies, Gothenburg University, Sweden
PhD candidate Conservation Science
On Jul 13, 2006, at 4:11 PM, Dan Prives wrote:
> I am offering a short survey
>
> Smithsonian Admission Survey: Should the Smithsonian museums on the
> Mall in DC charge admission, and if so, how much could they charge?
>
> http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=819342356571
>
> Regards,
> Dan Prives
> Where Most Needed
> Blogging about charities daily at:
> http://www.wheremostneeded.org
>
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