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For What It's Worth

Michael Rushton on pricing the arts

Museums are not expensive

August 2, 2023 by Michael Rushton Leave a Comment

New Yorkers who are interested in seeing the film Barbie at the local multiplex will pay $25.49 per ticket. If, on the same weekend, they wish to also see Oppenheimer, as I read, in about one hundred and forty-seven news reports, people were doing, then we are up to $51. If baseball is more your thing, $30.80 will put you in the highest tier right field bleachers to watch the rather mediocre Yankees take on the Tampa Bay Rays tonight. Many people will do these things.

The New York Times reports on major big-city museums raising their single day admission fees to $30.

At the Guggenheim, leaders said that options for relief were limited after three years of managing the fiscal crisis of the pandemic. And so on Tuesday, the museum raised admission fees, bringing the cost of an adult ticket from $25 to what is becoming the new normal for major museums: $30.

Most cultural organizations are navigating the same uncertainties, asking if the decision to raise fees to offset operating costs — basically maximizing revenues from a smaller core of visitors and art lovers — is worth the risk of limiting access to great art to mostly wealthier patrons. Museums, which are concerned about alienating the families and the diverse crowds they have been trying to court, say it’s typically a measure of last resort.

Every time one of our greatest museums raises its prices there will be a story about the cringe that is felt, that it is making art “inaccessible.” But some perspective is needed. $30 to spend an entire day with a truly great collection of art, to be face-to-face with some of the greatest works of our civilization, is a fantastic opportunity, and no more expensive, indeed often much less expensive, than various hedonistic entertainments. Anybody who truly loves art can buy a membership, which is worth it if even just three visits a year are planned, and very much worth it if more than three visits are planned (I wish more stories on ticket prices would mention (tax-deductible!) membership prices). Museum employees need to be paid a living wage, and that is a number that has increased sharply in recent years. There is little empirical support for the idea that if only admission prices are kept low, a more diverse (in all respects) audience will attend. Any calls for increased public funding of museums will need to reckon with the fact that only a minority of Americans attend any museums at all (including cheap-admission or free-admission ones) in any given year, and to ask them to pay increased taxes to support those who do attend museums will require some sort of reasoned justification.

Footnote: I write about all this in more detail here (paywalled, but if you are really interested send an email and we’ll figure something out).

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Michael Rushton

Michael Rushton taught in the Arts Administration programs at Indiana University, and lives in Bloomington. An economist by training, he has published widely on such topics as public funding of the … MORE

About For What It’s Worth

What’s the price? Everything has one; admission, subscriptions, memberships, special exhibitions, box seats, refreshments, souvenirs, and on and on – a full menu. What the price is matters. Generally, nonprofit arts organizations in the US receive about half of their revenue as “earned income,” and … [Read More...]

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