The entrance fee to America's online news articles keeps rising
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The entrance fee to America’s museums keeps rising
21–30 of 69 posts
Re: The entrance fee to America’s museums keeps rising
#22I think this dependson the region; IIRC NYC museums have always charged a fee. They're still free in DC and NC.
Depends on the museum in DC.
Smithsonian museums and the National Gallery have no admission fee, but private museums like the Spy or Bible museum do charge admission.
Re: The entrance fee to America’s museums keeps rising
#23I’m not sure what the difference is between something like the Guggenheim in NYC or the Tate Modern in London, but you can walk into the Tate without having to pay anything at all. Is there lots of government funding in the UK for the museum sector that doesn’t exist in the states?
The Guggenheim Director makes $850k.[0]
The Tate Modern Director "earns between £110,000–115,000 ($148,000–155,000)"[1]
They do differ in public funding, but the philosophies between US and European museums are fundamentally different.
[0]https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2021/12/21/guggenheim-direct...
[1]https://news.artnet.com/art-world/tate-denies-gender-pay-ine...
Re: The entrance fee to America’s museums keeps rising
#24NYT should do a little better here. A table, graph, or perhaps a map showing this rising trend would be much more interesting. Also, free museums still exist in the DC area. I don't know of other 100% free museums, but I'm sure they exist.
https://washington.org/dc-faqs-for-visitors/which-attraction...
Re: The entrance fee to America’s museums keeps rising
#25Protips: Museum networks with reciprocal memberships and passes from local libraries
There are a few networks of museums such that once you join one museum in one network you get member benefits (or discounts) to the other museums in that network.
The networks break down into: Arts [0], Science [1], and Children's museums [2] [3]. Bonus network: Zoos! [4]
These can be a great value - especially for families with kids that like to do these things frequently. Our family travels between the MA, NC, and FL and the memberships have been a big help.
[0] https://narmassociation.org
[1] https://www.astc.org/membership/find-an-astc-member/passport...
[2] https://findachildrensmuseum.org/reciprocal-network/
[3] https://childrensmuseums.org
[4] https://www.aza.org/join?locale=en
Join the local institution you will frequent the most as you sometimes get better discounts/value at your "home" location.
Finally, check your local library - many have free or reduced cost tickets/passes for local museums and other institutions.
Re: The entrance fee to America’s museums keeps rising
#26From Wikipedia, the Guggenheim can apparently show about 6% of it's collection at any one point. Seems like there's a fairly obvious way to generate more money there. But no, it's the union's fault they have money problems.
Every significant museum has vastly more in reserves than what can be shown. They're not art galleries, they also have a scientific and conservancy purpose.
I don't get "conservation" in the terms of art. They should keep art safe so that someday it may be seen? Why not let it be seen now?
I bet they could even lease out a fair amount of it with requirements of maintenance and some amount of public accessibility. That alone would drive down their costs at least.
Re: The entrance fee to America’s museums keeps rising
#27I remember the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry being an incredible place in the 1970s. I think it was in the 1990s I was there for some reason and it was pretty much gutted. Maybe the decline in American museums has been going on quite a while.
I love omsi! Have only lived here since 2017, though. What was so extra about it in the '70s that's lacking now (or at least was lacking in the '90s)?
I am not sure what was special back in the 70's (I only started going int he 80's) but they were in a different building near the zoo back then. When the new building was built they had to pay for it with increased ticket costs.
Re: The entrance fee to America’s museums keeps rising
#28The focus of the major American Museum has become the same focus that, unfortunately, has overtaken a lot of other non-profits. It's not to show a collection. It's to make money. And they dump a lot of resources in the marketing, fundraising and consultants, and blame 'wages' of the people who make 45k with, maybe, 2% yearly increases, when they jack up the prices.
Well, when in America…
Re: The entrance fee to America’s museums keeps rising
#29Bank of America offers free admission to museums on the first Saturday of the month. The art museum near me has a special toddler morning that happens on the same day.
Re: The entrance fee to America’s museums keeps rising
#30Yeah I recently paid nearly $100 for two people to visit the Chicago Field Museum and it was pretty disappointing. I'd guess well over half the exhibits are basically unchanged since I was a kid over 40 years ago, and it showed.
That’s insane. I can remember when you could get in a nice (non-Disney) theme park for $30/head.
Museum of Science and Industry pricing is still reasonable (Adult – $25.95, Child ages 3-11 – $14.95).