Sunday, May 3, 2009

Why Museums NEED to be FREE!

[caption id="attachment_745" align="alignleft" width="400" caption="Jacob Lawrence, "Ballots""]Jacob Lawrence, "Ballots"[/caption]

Because the Met and the Harlem Library nurtured the young Jacob Lawrence. From an article in Arts Journal.com. "He [Jacob Lawrence] also accompanied various mentors on trips to downtown galleries and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, eventually going by himself on foot, 60 blocks south of his home territory. While still a teenager, he developed an appreciation of early Renaissance art, the murals of Jose Orozco and the paintings of Arthur DoveJohn Marin and Kathe Kollwitz."
"I think of Lawrence whenever museums rise their admission fees. He remembered the MET being free. He wanted to go, and the Met let him in. (Robert Frost: Home is the place where, when you have to go there,They have to take you in.)"

Here is an Art Journal article that talks about the Art Institute of Chicago's disgusting and vile plan to raise their admissions prices. In the interest of full disclosure I am a member at the lowest possible yearly rate.   The best compromise is to adopt a pay what you can policy AND encourage memberships but leave the door open.

1 comment:

Joyce Owens said...

I was very disheartened when the Museum of Science and Industry started charging. I have gone there for years, entering the annual Black Creativity exhibition (which charges a fee) and when I had children taking them there to the children#39;s area, to see the toy trains and other exhibits. We paid to go to Omnimax and purchased objects from the gift shop. When they started to charge all the children I had always seen there disappeared. Among them may have been a young George Washington Carver or astronaut, Mae Jemison. br /br /The Art Institute has even stopped taking the quot;donationquot; I understand. they want the money or you don#39;t get in. I do have a membership, too. And you can get passes at the library or go free evening.