Los Angeles County Museum of Art Los Angeles, California en.wikipedia.org |
Winter vacation is upon us and it is time for getting together with family or just going off on your own. If you are like yours truly, you tend to prefer solitary activities. One of Blogger's favorite solo adventures is a trip to the museum. Naturally. However unless you are a member of a museum, the cost of admission can be prohibitive. When you factor in a trip to the snack bar and the bookstore, that nice trip to the museum can be almost as much as a trip to the movie theater. Consider this, what if admission to your favorite museum was free? This is the subject that Jessica Leigh Hester ponders in her CityLab article "Why Free Museums Matter." Ms. Hester's thesis is that free admission to museums would help remove their aura of exclusivity. Ms. Hester lovingly describes her own experience of attending a retrospective of the work of J.M.W. Turner, James Whistler, and Claude Monet. Theoretically, museums are for the public to come and spend time communing with great works of art. Museums also need to be a reflection of the community they serve. Further, they need to reach a larger audience that cannot come in person for various reasons. However, cultural institutions in the United States are trying out unique solutions to remedy the issues of accessibility.
Smithsonian National African American History and Culture Museum Washington D.C, news desk.si.edu |
The Whitney Museum new building New York City, New York whitney.org |
At the dedication of the new Whitney Museum in 2015, First Lady of The United States Michelle Obama spoke on the ambivalence of accessing cultural spaces is split along racial and socio-economic lines. Data from the American Association of Museums reveals that, nationally, "only 9 percent of visitors are minorities." Essentially, non-Caucasian visitors, Mrs. Obama said, may feel particularly uncomfortable standing beneath marble atriums:
You see, there are so many kids in this country who look at places like museums and concert halls and other cultural centers and they think to themselves, well, that's not a place for me, for someone who looks like me, for someone who comes from my neighborhood. In fact, I guarantee you right now, there are kids living less than a mile from here who would never in a million years dream that they would be welcome in this museum. And growing up on the South Side of Chicago, I was one of those kids myself.
The de Young Museum San Francisco, California sfstation.com |
the museum trip, once a feature of every New York City student's experience is becoming endangered,
Kim Kanatani, the director of education at the Guggenheim Museum told The New York Times.
Ms. Kanatani related to The Times that she and her co-workers noted a drop in school tours booked throughout the city. This pattern was also noted in other parts of the country. Case in point, in the 2010-11 school year, half the U.S. schools eliminated field trips according to a survey by the American Association of School Administrators.
The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art Bentonville, Arkansas en.wikipedia.org |
Jessica Leigh Hesters notes, "Free entry isn't a cure-all. Slicing the price of admission, for instance, doesn't solve the problems that spring from limited transit options or crunched schedules that don't allow much meandering." Blogger has experienced those issues in the past. To solve these problems, museums have taken their collections on the road. Under the direction of a $2 million grant from the Knight Foundation, the Detroit Institute of exhibits replicas of works in their collection throughout Michigan communities, This past summer, seven of those works were on view at public libraries and parks in the Orion Township. There are similar programs in Miami and Philadelphia.
Detroit Institute of Arts Detroit, Michigan content.time.com |
Only a third of our Facebook likes are from people in the United States, and even a smaller percentage is in New York...Our community is not geo-specific, It's built around language that's inclusive.
Art Institute of Chicago Chicago, Illinois artic.edu |
Free admission does work. Museums that altered their admissions policies noted a change in visitor patterns. "Attendance doubled after fees were waived to England's national collections in 2001, reported the director of London's Natural History Museum to The Guardian." When the Dallas Museum of Art eliminated its $10 admission fee, annual attendance grew from 498,000 to 668,000 and the museum saw a 29 percent uptick in minority visitors, reported Fortune.
In one respect, museum are static: permanent collection are not in a chaotic state of flux and the history they present spans the millennia. Art, in all of its glorious genres, is a moment in time as seen by the people who lived in cultures committed to canvas, stone, paper, clay, or photograph. In the digital age, museums are increasing their accessibility via the social media. Their Instagram feeds regularly feature images from their collections with ample opportunity for comment. Museum Twitter feeds allow patrons to decide on the contents of crowd-sourced exhibitions. The point here is the social media allows for a more inclusive conversation. Free admission is a good start, greater online presence is another way to make museums more accessible to all.
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