Should museums charge?
August 18 2015
Picture: Standard
Here in the UK, museums funded by central government are obliged to offer free entry. So, for example, the National Gallery in London is free to enter, and you can just walk in without hindrance (if the staff aren't on strike, that is). In Paris, by contrast, you have to pay EUR15 to get into the Louvre, and often wait in line for an age to do so. That said, it's free to get into Notre Dame, but for Westminster Abbey there's a fee. Such are the idiosyncracies of state funding.
Free museum entry has become something of a political football in the UK. The Tories (boo) introduced charges in 1974, then Labour (yay) abolished them a year later. In the eighties, the Tories introduced them again, only for Labout to abolish them once more in 2001. Now, however, the Tories are in again, and the question of re-introducing charges has apparently arisen, not least because government grants are seen as not keeping up with any amount of revenue foregone in ticket sales. Which of course they never do, even under Labour governments.
In the Evening Standard, Simon Jenkins has written a good piece arguing not necessarily for the abolition of free entry wholesale, but for allowing those institutions who want to charge to do so.
I am against the Government itself reintroducing museum charges, which were ended for the big museums in 2001. But I am equally against the Government telling museums not to charge. If they wish to be free and can find someone to cover the cost, good luck to them. But nothing so enervates an institution as having its decisions curbed by politics. Museums should grow up. [...]
The effect of non-charging on London’s museums has been clear. Money talks. The National Gallery’s grant is where it was 10 years ago, and it shows. The major institutions have switched their energies to blockbuster charging exhibitions and money is raised for flashy buildings to accommodate them. Meanwhile, the quality of the permanent displays has atrophied (except at the V&A) and hordes of objects languish unseen in basements. It is hard to avoid the conclusion that what is free has been buried, to make way for what makes money.
Meanwhile, the British Museum and the National Gallery are near intolerable for the daily crush, dominated by parties of schoolchildren dumped by foreign tour operators (and teachers) who cannot believe their luck. The NG can at times be more of a teenage crèche than an art gallery. Free entry is a half-billion pound taxpayer subsidy to the tourist industry
There is something tempting in the idea that free entry should be free for UK residents (ie, taxpayers) but not for overseas visitors. These days, for institutions in London like the British Museum and the National Gallery, a majority of visitors are from outside the UK. By and large, we UK residents pay when we go to museums overseas - should we charge overseas visitors to see our museums?
Maybe. But the trouble is, how to do it? If we had ID cards in Britain, you could allow free entry to UK citizens, but not to anyone else. But we don't and anyway under EU law, it is illegal to charge members of one state for entry, but not another. I suppose we could make non-EU residents pay, but then how do we expect to sort out who comes from where? It wouldn't work. And we - that is, museums and the government - are so hooked on the headline numbers of visitors, that the belief is visitors can ultimately be made to pay their way (ie, in shops and cafés) if only we can get them into the museum in the first place. That's one reason so many museum extensions end up increasing toilet, restaurant and shop space, but not display space.
I doubt very much that the present government, even though it's a Tory one, will allow the re-introduction of entry charges. Free entry has become a political Rubicon which cannot be crossed. When a previous Tory culture Secretary of State, Jeremy Hunt, said that free entry would be maintained 'no ifs or buts', he said it with the support of David Cameron and George Osborne, who are of course still the PM and Chancellor. Indeed, Cameron once sacked a previous Tory culture spokesman after he suggested exactly the policy that Jenkins advocates; allowing museums to charge - if the trustees felt they wanted to.
So, if museum grants are going to go down, but visitors numbers are going to continue to go up, even in such a way as to cost institutions money (visitors must, for example, go to the toilet and put bags somewhere etc), then what to do? It seems to me that free entry is taken too literally by institutions, who allow people to wander in without any reminder at all that each visit must be paid for somehow. The most one sees are small, easily ignored perspex boxes saying meekly 'please donate'. Few people do. We must somehow develop the idea among visitors that our museums must be supported not only through the taxpayer, but additionally through individual support by those who are able to afford to do so (which, let's face it, is most of us).
How? I'd be in favour of something closer to the model they have at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, where you can certainly get in for free if you want to, or really need to, but they give you the full guilt trip if you do so without paying at least something. What do you think? Any ideas?
Incidentally, the National Gallery is one place we can be sure will never introduce entry charges, thanks to the tortuous terms of the Mahon bequest. Under the terms of Sir Denis Mahon's will, the numerous paintings he left to the National Gallery and other institutions such as the Ashmolean, the Fitzwilliam and the National Gallery of Scotland can be withdrawn if those insitutions introduce charging. Personally, I thought that was a rather odd, even selfish thing to do. If you want to give an institution a painting, that's great. But don't turn it into a means to exercise power beyond the grave.
Update - a US reader writes:
I like the Met Museum scheme. Those (the majority) who can should pay the full entry fee to visit and subsidize those who can only pay less. If you got there by bus or cab you can pay something to the museum. That is what private schools and universities do with their high full fees partially funding scholarships
The hotel and tourist industry should also subsidize “attractions” that bring some of their business.
School groups should be free as a matter of public policy and building a future audience.
A UK reader writes:
At the Wallace the plastic boxes made a reasonable contribution....as they are beginning to do at Derby Museums, though of course on a very different scale.
Did you check with any big London Museums what % of their non grant income comes from the boxes?
I did not! But I have sent enquiries today, and will let you know the answers.
