Problem
The museum is advertised as free. But when you get there they are charging for exhibitions. Why? And what's all this timed entry for?
Answers
Sometimes a rich person or a keen collector leaves their collection of art or objects to the local school or council or the entire country, stupulating that it must be free for all to see.
So far, so good. However, to display works of art or museum objects you need two things, a building with a repair fund, and payments staff. If the museum then attracts other donations, the museum is in a fix. Can they really way, we have two rooms each with space for ten paintings, we already have ten Rembrandts and Ten Van Goghs, what's more people don't want them in the same room, so we don't want your painting.
What can they do? Put out the popular paitnings and keep the othersstacked downstairs in the basement in storage and hope the buildings won't flood and the paintings won't get stolen without anybody realising the box is empty, or lost or forgotten.
Open another branch museum in another city. Send the piantings off around the world on a tour, charging the recipient museums and countries fees high enough to cover the transport and insurance and travel escorts, and packing and unpacking, and policing on arrival and crowd control.
This has risks but also advantages. Poeple get to hear about your museum. the basement is temporarily cleared of clutter. You can generate income to pay for your staff and increasing updating your home museum or gallery's facilities which never used to be there.
For example, such as self-flushing toilets, security cameras, touch screens to answer visitor questions, guided tours on hand-held devices. What else? Ramps for the disabled, fire exits and fire doors and maybe sprinklers and connections to the police or fire service to comply with new regulations. Modern security may require bag searches and lockers for backpacks. More toilets, self-flushing, hand driers, replacing broken seats and hooks. Building - overhaul of leaking roofs and rising damp. More restaurants and a bigger gift shop to cope with and conveneience the increasing number of visitors. Regular cleaning. Organising events to attract the donors and Friends Of The Museum. training museum guides. Updating captions. Adding direction signs.
At the Horniman museum in London somebody working for the golf area (crazy golf I think) said that the golf there in the summer served a dual purpose. It entertained and attracted visitors. He didn't say but it just occured to me, the extra outdoor activity kept down the numbers indoors reducing overcrowding. The outdoors attraction, kept some of the excitedly shrieking small children away from disturbing museum visitors. Families and community minded people would be glad children and adults and grandparents could walk or run around in fresh air and get vital vitamin D. The cash could help fund the constant drain on funds by the main museum which needs upkeep and staffing and ever increasing acitivities nowadays, such as marketing and printing.
With public libararies and swimming pools and minor museum in London and all over the UK threatened with closure or already closed, you realise that keeping a free museum free running and serving the entire community requires effort and money.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
The museum is advertised as free. But when you get there they are charging for exhibitions. Why? And what's all this timed entry for?
Answers
Sometimes a rich person or a keen collector leaves their collection of art or objects to the local school or council or the entire country, stupulating that it must be free for all to see.
So far, so good. However, to display works of art or museum objects you need two things, a building with a repair fund, and payments staff. If the museum then attracts other donations, the museum is in a fix. Can they really way, we have two rooms each with space for ten paintings, we already have ten Rembrandts and Ten Van Goghs, what's more people don't want them in the same room, so we don't want your painting.
What can they do? Put out the popular paitnings and keep the othersstacked downstairs in the basement in storage and hope the buildings won't flood and the paintings won't get stolen without anybody realising the box is empty, or lost or forgotten.
Open another branch museum in another city. Send the piantings off around the world on a tour, charging the recipient museums and countries fees high enough to cover the transport and insurance and travel escorts, and packing and unpacking, and policing on arrival and crowd control.
This has risks but also advantages. Poeple get to hear about your museum. the basement is temporarily cleared of clutter. You can generate income to pay for your staff and increasing updating your home museum or gallery's facilities which never used to be there.
For example, such as self-flushing toilets, security cameras, touch screens to answer visitor questions, guided tours on hand-held devices. What else? Ramps for the disabled, fire exits and fire doors and maybe sprinklers and connections to the police or fire service to comply with new regulations. Modern security may require bag searches and lockers for backpacks. More toilets, self-flushing, hand driers, replacing broken seats and hooks. Building - overhaul of leaking roofs and rising damp. More restaurants and a bigger gift shop to cope with and conveneience the increasing number of visitors. Regular cleaning. Organising events to attract the donors and Friends Of The Museum. training museum guides. Updating captions. Adding direction signs.
At the Horniman museum in London somebody working for the golf area (crazy golf I think) said that the golf there in the summer served a dual purpose. It entertained and attracted visitors. He didn't say but it just occured to me, the extra outdoor activity kept down the numbers indoors reducing overcrowding. The outdoors attraction, kept some of the excitedly shrieking small children away from disturbing museum visitors. Families and community minded people would be glad children and adults and grandparents could walk or run around in fresh air and get vital vitamin D. The cash could help fund the constant drain on funds by the main museum which needs upkeep and staffing and ever increasing acitivities nowadays, such as marketing and printing.
With public libararies and swimming pools and minor museum in London and all over the UK threatened with closure or already closed, you realise that keeping a free museum free running and serving the entire community requires effort and money.
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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