Out-of-Towners Will Pay More At Met
The Metropolitan Museum in New York will change its admissions policy from 1 March, charging out-of-town visitors to the encyclopaedic institution a mandatory $25 entry fee, while New York residents and students in the tri-state area will continue to pay what they wish. The move aims to offset the dwindling number of people who pay the full suggested donation, which has fallen from 63% of visitors in 2004 to 17% today. It also comes as the museum shores up its finances and works to eliminate a $10m deficit by 2020.
The pay as you wish policy as it current exists has “basically failedâ€, the Met’s president and chief executive Daniel Weiss tells The Art Newspaper, and it cannot sustain the museum’s efforts to serve as one of largest centres for art historical scholarship. The new admissions policy aims to slightly raise the revenue brought in through admission by around 3% or $49m annually. “For the Met to function as the global institution we want it to be requires significant resources,†he says.
