Tristram Hunt, the director of the V&A, has defended the rising cost of exhibition tickets but said the museum will offer more flexible pricing including cheaper entry for advance bookings.
Many people bristle at the cost of tickets to exhibitions at the UK’s national museums and galleries. The top-price ticket at the V&A’s Pink Floyd show last year was £24, and the National Gallery was in the headlines in April when it charged £22 for a weekend ticket for its Monet show.
Hunt, speaking at the Cheltenham literature festival, said he did not believe the prices were exorbitant. “They have risen. Have they risen more than cinema prices? I doubt it. Have they risen more than train prices? I very much doubt it.”
He said the museum would be smarter around ticket prices. “So if you’re coming on Saturday afternoon it’s going to cost more than if you’re coming on Tuesday morning. If you can book ahead it’s going to be cheaper than turning up on the day. That kind of modelling that we’re used to in aeroplanes and other parts of our life.” He added: “I’m not saying we’re turning into Ryanair.”
He said it was interesting that the Pink Floyd show, with higher prices, had the highest number of people from lower socio-economic groups coming to the V&A during that time.
“It seems to me that if you’re putting on something that is interesting and attractive, you are going to reach that audience,” Hunt said. “If people are willing to pay hundreds and hundreds of pounds on football season tickets then seeking to have a fair price for a work of great curatorial excellence does not seem to me wrong.”
The V&A has undoubtedly staged extremely popular exhibitions in recent years, another being the current Frida Kahlo exhibition. Almost 200,000 people have visited so far and on Monday the V&A announced a two-week extension to cope with demand. There will also be a 48-hour opening of the show to coincide with the Mexican Day of the Dead holiday on 2-4 November.
Hunt said all museums and galleries, national and regional, were operating in a difficult financial climate, with government spending on the V&A falling by 30% since 2010.
He advocates city mayors and local authorities being allowed to levy a hotel tax. “My view is that four out of five visitors come to London to see culture. When I go and stay in New York or Paris or Rome I pay a hotel tax which supports the cultural infrastructure of those cities.” The same should happen in the UK, he argues.
Hunt also spoke about one of the most pressing issues in the arts and culture sector: the fall in the number of schoolchildren having access to arts subjects. He said this was down to a combination of the new Ebacc, which does not include a compulsory arts subject; budget pressures within schools; and a cultural fear, often from parents, of young people pursuing arts and humanities subjects in the face of high tuition fees.
“All of this has led to a perfect storm of a collapse in creativity, particularly within the state secondary sector just at the moment. In the face of the fourth industrial revolution, in the face of the digital revolution, when we need more creativity and innovation within our education system, we are systematically stripping it out of the English schooling programme.”