Wednesday, October 14, 2009

MFA hikes ticket prices, cuts special exhibit fee

May make MFA visits the most expensive museum tickets in U.S.

Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts – already one of the most expensive art museums to visit in the United States – is raising its general admission adult ticket price from $17 to $20 as it opens its new special exhibition “The Secrets of Tomb 10A” on Oct. 18.

However, with this 18 percent price hike visitors will now gain admission into everything in the museum, instead of the $25 adult admission previously charged for entry into special exhibitions, like this Egyptian antiquities show, or this summer's “Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese” Renaissance painting exhibit.

MFA special exhibition tickets appear to have been the most expensive art museum admission in the nation. But now its general admission tickets may be – along with New York’s Museum of Modern Art (whose price includes special exhibitions) – the most expensive general admission in the land.
General admission at some U.S. museums:
New York’s Museum of Modern Art: $20.
Art Institute of Chicago: $18.
Philadelphia Museum of Art: $16.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art: $12 (special exhibits: $25).
L.A. MOCA: $10 ($2 fee for online purchases)
Dallas Museum of Art: $10.

5 Comments:

Blogger Eric The Moor said...

Holy Toledo.
I was able to copy there a lot on the BRA's now defunct "Artist Museum Pass". I finally sold one of the paintings and got a membership. But I felt sorry for the visitors going through, with the gallery space reduced by 50%. The Clark now has a bigger display of American paintings than Boston's MFA

October 14, 2009 12:35 PM  
Blogger George Fifield said...

I recall that when the Museum of Modern Art raised their price to $20, they explained that they hoped it would increase the number of people who would become members. Year long membership at the MFA is pretty reasonable especially now compared to the admission price. $75 for an individual, $55 if you live outside New England and $100 for dual/family. I wonder what MOMA's price spike did for their membership rolls?

October 14, 2009 6:19 PM  
Blogger Eric The Moor said...

Yah it had that effect on me, but it's taken them months to get the membership card to me.

October 15, 2009 4:06 PM  
Blogger harlan erskine said...

MoMA's membership is also a great deal since it includes all the movies you would like to see in a year. They play great films and considering the price of the average movie I am sure their member rolls have swelled a ton.

They also have an artist membership rate of $35.

October 20, 2009 3:40 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

You can visit Tate Britain, Tate Modern and Tate Liverpool for free all year round.

So come to the galleries and enjoy a great day out without it costing you a penny.

The entire Tate Collection is available online.

Admission to the Tate is free.
http://www.tate.org.uk/

How is it that our cultural, tax exempt institutions can feel so comfortable doing so little for the people of their city?

October 23, 2009 12:47 AM  

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