A Community Resource? An Examination of the Museum of Fine Arts’ Hours of Voluntary Admission Fee

Dublin Core

Title

A Community Resource? An Examination of the Museum of Fine Arts’ Hours of Voluntary Admission Fee

Description

Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) is ranked as one of the “most comprehensive art museums in the world,” boasting a collection of nearly 450,000 works—ranging from Ancient Egyptian artifacts to pieces of Contemporary Art. Access to such an incredible institution does not come without a corresponding price, though. During most hours, a general admission ticket to the Museum costs $25 for an adult, which is not affordable for many visitors. Fortunately, the Museum has launched several initiatives to help make the MFA’s collection and programming more accessible. One of the oldest and most well known of these initiatives is their hours of voluntary admission fee: on Wednesday nights after 4pm, visitors can choose whether to make a contribution to the MFA during their visit or to simply enter the Museum for free. Offering hours of voluntary admission fee has furthered the MFA in its mission of “serving a wide variety of people through direct encounters with works of art” by providing an opportunity and an incentive for people from diverse geographical regions and of diverse socio-economic backgrounds to come together and learn from the Museum’s collection and programs. After almost 100 informal interviews with Boston residents and visitors to the MFA, four sessions of observations at the MFA, and an examination of data released by the MFA, I learned that this this initiative does not, however, advance another of goal of the MFA—“to benefit the City of Boston”—for primarily four reasons. First, the hours of voluntary admission fee do not benefit only residents of Boston. Similarly, they do not benefit only people who would otherwise face financial barriers to visiting the Museum. Furthermore, this initiative alone does not address other barriers some residents face to accessing the Museum (including the price of commuting to the museum, lack of flexibility in scheduling visits to the Museum, and a lack of awareness about opportunities to access the Museum.) Finally, the relatively busy hours of voluntary admission fee could possibly interfere with visitors’ ability to learn about or become interested in the MFA’s collection, which works against the Museum’s “ultimate aim...to encourage inquiry and to heighten public understanding and appreciation of the visual world.”

Creator

Sarah Allen

Files

http://dighist.fas.harvard.edu/courses/2015/USW24/files/original/14ce6e828100eb4ae6f3c23833015897.png

Citation

Sarah Allen, “A Community Resource? An Examination of the Museum of Fine Arts’ Hours of Voluntary Admission Fee,” USW24, accessed March 29, 2024, https://usworld24.omeka.fas.harvard.edu/items/show/5.