They’re raising the entrance fee from $25 (which was apparently set in 2015) to $30 According to the BLS inflation calculator, $25 in 2015 had the same buying power as $32.64 now Apparently museums are getting cheaper in real terms! What’s the issue?
Thanks. I was going to cynically point out that inflation is still positive, tremendously positive, therefore "of course the price is going up".
I 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.
Most of my best field trips as a kid involved OMSI.
Protips: 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…
Possible protip: Working at a FAANG or similar Fortune 500 might also grant you entry. I went to the Deyoung recently with a friend and found out that Genentech employees get access with an employee badge.
IMO, better a somewhat higher risk of loss or damage actually being used than paying for them to slowly rot in a storehouse.
They're not slowly rotting in a storehouse. They're restored, conserved, and rotated in and out of the museum's public collection so it's ever-changing, which helps generate repeat business. (They're often also available for academic purposes.)
Conserving them only slows the rate of rot.
There's some truth to helping generate repeat business, but even with a 100% yearly rotation rate that's a 17 year cycle to see everything without counting new additions. I doubt people are going to lose interest because two years prior to the new showing they could have traveled to Oklahoma City to view it.
Protips: 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…
Free passes from public libraries - together with museum free days - sure look to me like a crutch that may be used to justify these higher prices. The result is very mixed: Yes that are now more free days I can go. But there are now no options to go and just idle and roam at a reasonable price. I used to have a membership to one of the few local world class museums but that's now not renewed. Another local world class museum has a price set so (relatively) high I never go anymore. The outcome seems very polarizing. But then perhaps just the cost of market segmentation resulting in high income and just perhaps, maybe stronger overall services in the end. I kind of doubt it.
Meanwhile we still have a few entirely free outstanding ones.
Protips: 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…
Free passes from public libraries - together with museum free days - sure look to me like a crutch that may be used to justify these higher prices. The result is very mixed: Yes that are now more free days I can go. But there are now no options to go and just idle and roam at a reasonable price. I used to have a membership to one of the few local world class museums but that's now not renewed. Another local world cla…
After moving away from walking distance to the National Mall in dc, I realized I had no idea how fortunate people who live in that area are to be able to access a dozen plus world-class museums for free, on their own terms and schedule. I had not moved to that area because of this perk, but it's far and away the one I'm most regret being without now. There's nothing else remotely like it in any major city in the country, maybe in any country.
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)?
The old building next to the zoo was smaller, so it was more cozy and you were just surrounded by fascinating things. And it had a periscope. It might well just be nostalgia that remembers it as a superior experience, however. I share the fond memories, but it's hard to say the new location is objectively worse. It's a lot larger and spread out, for sure, which changes the ambiance significantly. But it accommodates…
Also, the museum store was not just a gift shop but a real science supply center. You could buy lab supplies and chemicals. I recall it was a lot cheaper than buying from Fisher or Sigma-Aldrich. They even had a branch store down in Eugene.
I see, now, it makes complete sense. I'm sure museums in France are free for French citizen under 25 and the unemployed in order to draw in more tourists which would come and pay anyway. That has absolutely nothing to do with these countries actually seeing access to culture as a public good and valuing education.
You don't seem to be seeing that those are two sides of the same coin. The article cites rising labor costs as the primary factor in needing to increase ticket prices. Well, why would labor costs in an industry rise? Because demand exceeds supply. And why would demand exceed supply? Because people only want to work there "as a job", rather than seeing working there as a cultural mission to educate others — to educate…
No, the labor costs are mostly rising because culturally significant cities in the Anglosphere have seen their housing costs blow up to astronomical levels in the last few years.
Supply is hilariously above demand globally, people in the museum space basically make the calculation of what is the minimum I can talk myself into justifying and not live an actively unpleasant life and that minimum bar has simply skyrocketed vs 10 years ago.