Through Four Eyes: That Bob Dylan quote...
…came from an interview in the 60s after he was just booed for using an electric guitar.
The 60s.
I have no idea what Bob Dylan thinks about museums today.
Nor do I, but the point of interest still stands. If people are reblogging it, then obviously they…
It’s not just America’s anti-intellectualism that drives people from museums. (Though that particular American mindset horrifies me.) The cost of going to a museum can keep many people from ever entering one.
I don’t know the museum admission fees in other cities, but here in Milwaukee the general admission for the public museum for one non-member adult is $12.50. Now that doesn’t look too high a price at a glance, but the museum has remained almost completely unchanged for at least 15 years now. The general mentality of someone who is not a museum lover is “once I’ve seen it, I don’t need to pay to see the same thing again.” So if the museum is getting repeat visitors it’s probably because there’s a travelling exhibit currently on display. The cost of these special exhibits is not included in general admission. The current Mummies of the World exhibit being advertised costs an adult non-museum-member an additional $24.50. This makes the cost for one adult $37.00. My family currently has five people in it that are under the adult price and two under the teen price. So if my family wanted to have a museum outing, it would cost us $235.00.
That’s not a sum of money my family is capable of spending for an afternoon outing at a public museum without a thought.
In contrast, the Milwaukee Art Museum is the museum people around here think of when they think “elite.” Yet despite the entire building screaming “stand in awe of the creations before you, mortal,” it’s actually the less expensive option. The admission fee is $14.00 for adults, which is slightly higher than MPM, but there isn’t an additional fee for most visiting exhibits. For my family of seven to visit the museum during a special exhibit, it would cost $98.00. However, that is still more than my family can easily spend on an outing that not everyone is interested in.
The only time my family can realistically visit either museum is if they run a special or my dad can get discount tickets for his work. Both scenarios are so rare that my visit of MPM last summer was my first in more than 7 years. The people that I see visiting either museum on a regular basis are either art students who get free admission on certain days through their school and the elite members of society who can afford it easily. The rest of society sees the museums as a place for schoolchildren on a field trip and expensive social events for the wealthy.
I would love for this to change because I love my museums. But unless they figure out a way to make them more affordable for the public or I suddenly get a job that pays well, they will remain lovely but inaccessible buildings that I pass on my bike in the summer.
Reblogged for excellent commentary. It’s absolutely true sometimes - and believe me when I say we all would prefer it wasn’t that way. Unfortunately, the problem is that Museums are non-profits. They have only a few sources of income - those who donate, those who are purchasing tickets/buying things within the museum, grants, and the government. The museums who do not charge large ticket sales fees are often either extremely wealthy Museums or extremely broke ones.
I do have a few examples of Phoenix Area Museums for comparison:
The Heard:
Admission Pricing:
Phoenix Art:General Admission:
$10 adults
$8 senior citizens & fulltime college/university students w/ID
$4 children ages 6-17
Free for Museum members & children under age 6
Special policies and fees may apply to ticketed and special admission exhibitions
Voluntary donation on First Friday evenings, 6-10pm
Voluntary donation on Wednesday evenings, 3-9pm.
Free Wednesdays (3-9pm) are brought to you by SRP
Arizona Science Center
General Admission
Non-Members
Members
Adult
Senior (62+)
Child (3-17)$12
$10
$10FREE
FREE
FREEIt’s expensive, and that’s a problem. Most, if not all Museums have free days, however, sometimes once a month or more, and part of the problem is advertising these days, and doing outreach. The goal is to be accessible, but financial constraints often hinder this goal. Admittedly, not all Museums are as easily accessed as we’d like them to be, and in that sense there is some truth there, but they are not intended to be out of the reach of the public, and it is our job to try and solve that problem.
I know exactly what you mean. The Essential Bob Dylan album costs $16.99 as an mp3 download! This doesn’t even include the cost of a player, the cost of a computer or an internet connection!
I’m in a family of five as well. If I wanted to buy Bob Dylan for all of us, it would cost close to $85. This is after we’ve spent up to $1000 on iPods for all of us. I just don’t know how anyone except the super rich elite can afford Bob Dylan.
