Prices at American museums, those guardians of civilization, are getting downright uncivilized. It's not just that regular entrance fees are edging up, it's the extra charges: upward of $20 per person for special exhibits on Impressionists, antiquities and other blockbuster subjects.
Sometimes it seems the treasure I've deposited at the museum's box office rivals what's on the exhibit shelves -- and never more so since I journeyed to Hong Kong and Singapore last month, where the exquisite museums I visited charged well under $2 per person.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday November 09, 2003 Home Edition Travel Part L Page 3 Features Desk 2 inches; 95 words Type of Material: Correction
Museum admissions -- A Travel Insider column in the Oct. 12 Travel section incorrectly interpreted data from the American Assn. of Museums. The group's questionnaires indicate that the median admission fee at museums has risen about 25%, from about $4 to $5, since 1999, not 50% or more, as written.
What's wrong with this picture? Quite a bit, it turns out.
In the last few years and especially since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, "museums' costs have been continuing to skyrocket, and every source of support has suffered dramatic decline," says Edward H. Able Jr., president and chief executive of the Washington, D.C.-based American Assn. of Museums.
To ease the budget squeeze, many of America's estimated 16,000 art, history and other museums, including zoos, have raised entrance fees -- perhaps by 50% or more on average since 1999, according to the results from questionnaires that Able's group sent to 5,000 museums.
It's not just locals who feel the pain; it's tourists too. Next to shopping and outdoor activities, museums and historic sites are among the top reasons we travel, according to surveys by the Travel Industry Assn. of America.
The causes of the increasing fees are numerous. Take government funding. If you can find any.
At New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art, only 14% of 2002 operating income came from the city -- and nearly half of that went to pay utility bills. Major sources for the rest included the museum's endowment, private donations, memberships (14%) and admissions (10%).
At the New Orleans Museum of Art, local, state and federal money typically covers about a fourth of the operating costs, with the balance from private sources, says director E. John Bullard.
Even the Smithsonian Institution, probably the best-known government-funded museum organization in America, took only three-fourths of its 2002 budget from public coffers. The balance came mostly from private donations, investment earnings and business ventures. (Its 16 museums do not charge admission.)
By contrast, in Singapore, the affluent island nation of 4.6 million off the Malay Peninsula, the government in 2001 funded more than 90% of the budget of the National Heritage Board, which oversees museums.
