Free museums…?
There was an interesting discussion on Radio Four this morning about free entry to museums. Simon Jenkins, chairman of the National Trust, raised concerns about the London-centric nature of free access to national museums. To be honest, I was under the impression that it is not just the national museums that are free, many provincial museums also offer free entry. Indeed, all the museums I visit regularly are free. One of my favourites is Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery which has offered free access for a while now. Banbury Museum likewise. Southampton museums were also free until earlier this year and now charge nominal entrance fees.
It is indeed true that uneven free entry will encourage visitors to visit some museums over and above others but this is not an argument for having entry fees. I have noticed when visiting another of my haunts, the Natural History Museum, that the demographic of visitors has changed in recent years. Many more people in total including more children and families in attendance rather than just obviously middle-class, middle-aged couples. This is a good thing; everyone should be given the opportunity to visit informative places like museums, they should not be restricted to those with disposable income. Far too often, heritage attractions charge an entry fee based on some rather spurious figure in the order of £6-10 for an adult. So, for a family day out, a typical 2 adult + 2 children family are looking at a not insubstantial sum and for those on low incomes, this may just be too much. If we want people to engage with heritage attractions, including museums, we need to scrap or reduce entrance fees as much as possible.
Janet E Davis Said,
June 16, 2009 @ 11:03 pm
I’m a strong believer in people having access to their heritage – especially publicly-owned or funded cultural heritage. I could write at great length about why I think it’s so important. The problem is that, as you know, heritage costs money. I have been increasingly concerned that only the wealthy will be able to become the curators, conservators, researchers, interpreters etc because of the cost of studying appropriate degrees and the low level of most salaries/rates of fees. I’ve been in the situation of being one of team discussing what level to set the admission prices for heritage sites. We didn’t like having to charge anyone (and erred on the generous side for concessions) but the funding from Government was decreasing year on year and we had to cover at least some costs so we could afford to have interpretation and visitor facilities at sites as well as pay for any conservation work required. Once, many years ago, I startled my managers & colleagues by suggesting that we asked a brewery for sponsorship to cover some of the costs of repairing & resurfacing the car park for a big abbey which was also used by the visitors to the adjacent pub (which had once been one of the abbey buildings, naturally). I wrote a nice letter which my boss signed, and the national brewery paid promptly. I also suggested that we bought a freehouse pub that came up for sale, also in a building originally part of an abbey elsewhere. They liked the idea but didn’t think we’d get the money. I also suggested micro-breweries as appropriate money-making enterprises at monastic ruins (again – this was a long, long time ago, and maybe I was too far ahead of the times). Budgets for museums and heritage sites seem to be cut 1st by local authorities when they need to cut back their costs.We have to do more to convince the people with money of the necessity and value of funding heritage. We never get the investment into heritage relative to the income it raises for others! Local politicians seem to avoid canvassing in our street since, a few years ago, a candidate asked me what I wanted her to do if elected – and I asked what she would do for heritage. When she couldn’t answer, I gave her a long lecture on why heritage was so essential to the region’s economic and social health. At general elections, I ask the main parties canvassing in my area what their policies are. I think that only the LibDems answered positively last time.