All Museums Should Be Free Of Charge All The Time - Essay Example

All Museums Should Be Free Of Charge All The Time Museums are meant to preserve and exhibit the social, political, cultural and scientific heritage of a place or a country. Every individual, either a citizen of that country or a foreign tourist should have access to such enriching and educational resources that are so important to our heritage. Museums are a source of knowledge for us and especially for persons who cannot find the money for buying books and other study materials. Free access to museum is essential to provide us with the opportunity to learn about our heritage more closely. Views Supporting the Issue Museums have an important role in preserving and bringing a country’s historical inheritance to the view of the new generations. Museums are repositories of knowledge and through them we discover and find out important aspects of our civilization. Free access to museums would help a greater number of people to learn and discover additional things about their country and help to encourage feelings of nationwide unity and identity, at the same time as promoting greater comprehension and acceptance of foreign cultures. A number of museums in the United States have made entry for the public free of charge. These museums generally use the city and county tax collections for funding their maintenance. The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore has eliminated entry charges. Since it has an internationally renowned collection of art, the removal of admission charges, would bring a greater number of people in contact with the culture of the world. The museum has a collection of a variety of world art spanning from pre-dynastic Egypt to Europe belonging to twentieth century. It treasures a priceless collection of Greek sculptures and Roman sarcophagi; ivories of the Middle Ages and Old Master paintings; jewelry from Art Deco and nineteenth century American and European masterpieces (Smith; The Walters Art Museum). The Toledo Art Museum in Ohio follows a free admission policy laid down in its charter of 1901, the year of its establishment. It has a huge collection of European and American paintings, glass works, Roman, Greek, Asian, African and medieval art and sculptures as well as modern and contemporary works. The Toledo Museum of Art still remains as a private, non-profit foundation and exhibits its collection to the public, free of admission charges and is open six days a week (Museum Home). The St. Louis Art Museum also guarantees free entries to the museum. This policy came up after they started using the county and city tax revenue in 1971. The idea of free admission corresponded to their tag line of “Dedicated to Art and Free to All” which is engraved in the stone portico of its 1904 building. Also the entry to the St. Louis Zoo, the St. Louis Science Center and the Missouri History Museum has been made free (Smith). Again, there are museums which are free for some specific hours in a day or some single day. Some museums have pay-as-you-like policies like the Seattle Art Museum and the Brooklyn Museum. Certain museums like the Toledo Art Museum, the Kimbell Art Museum, the Amon Carter Museum in Texas, the Des Moines Art Center and the Timken Museum of Art in San Diego do not levy any fee for entry but charge for special occasions like exhibitions. However, they have permanent donation boxes put on view prominently (Smith). Views Opposing the Issue Although, admission in museums should be made free of charges, yet some museums need to charge an entry fee. The reason stated for this is the fact that preserving these museums necessitates a lot of maintenance. This is obviously necessary because of the great extent of heritage held by these edifices. Museums require a lot of money to keep the historical objects intact and well-maintained. The state allots a specific portion of their budgetary expenses in funding the museums. However, the amount sometimes falls short of the actual expenses incurred. To, make up for the deficits, entry fees need to be charged from visitors. Since, it upholds the heritage of a country; citizens should have a responsibility in contributing towards its maintenance. The Art Institute of Chicago is an example of museums that charge an entry fee. Also, the entry fee is quite high and amounts to twelve dollars per visit. Again, the Museum of Modern Art charges an admission fee of twenty dollars which was applied from 2004 and it corresponds to an increase of 67 percent from the previous fee. It is claimed that the fee charged by the museum, although comparatively quite high, is not so in reality. This is justified by a large poster in the museum which displays that cost of seeing one work of Manet, exhibited for the first time in a hall in Boston was 25 cents. This would equal to about 5 dollars per work in present currency equivalence. Hence, it is argued that the current museum charges are a bargain (Oster). As long as the museums are able to maintain the places with the tax funding, admission should be made free. Charges should only be levied in the cases where the funds cannot cover the costs of maintenance. Conclusion Since, museums impart knowledge about our historical and scientific inheritance and help us to discover more about our heritage therefore, everyone should have the right to access it without any impediments. Museums are a store house of our heritage and hence free access to them is necessary to understand our past and pride. Hence, the target should be to meet the maintenance costs from the taxes which would help us to access the museums free of charges. Although, museums lecture about their desire to attract larger and more democratic viewers, the fact is that they cannot even start to identify this audience until they lower the entry barrier. This could be achieved through reducing or removing the entry charges so as to bring a greater number of people in contact with our country’s heritage. References 1. Smith, Roberta, “Should Art Museums Always Be Free? There’s Room for Debate”, The New York Times, 2006, Available from: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/22/arts/design/22admi.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1 (Accessed on Jan 25, 2010). 2. “Toledo Museum Of Art”, Museum Home, n.d., Available from: http://www.toledomuseum.org/about (Accessed on Jan 25, 2010). 3. “Welcome to the Walters Art Museum”, The Walters Art museum, n.d., Available from: http://thewalters.org/ (Accessed on Jan 25, 2010). 4. Oster, Sharon, “Charges Now-Here’s How”, Museum, 2007, Available from: http://www.aam-us.org/pubs/mn/chargenow.cfm (Accessed on Jan 25, 2010). Read More