Free-for-All

By: Kathryn McKay

January 2007

BALTIMORE—When the city’s two largest art museums wanted to increase traffic, they didn’t

Baltimore Museum of Art.

just lower admission fees—they eliminated them. The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) and the Walters Art Museum opened on October 1 with free admission. “This isn’t a trend, but more museums are experimenting with fees,” says American Association of Museums spokesman Jason Hall (the Indianapolis Museum of Art, for example, announced its admission is free starting this month). Both museums had charged $10, which constituted 2 to 3 percent of their operating budgets. To compensate for lost dollars at the door, the City of Baltimore, local counties and foundations are subsidizing the difference for the first year, and museum officials expect their continued support. Regardless, they plan to keep their new admission policy.

In the policy’s inaugural month, the BMA attracted 14,393 visitors, 500 more than last October during the museum's blockbuster “Monet’s London.” The Walters reported 21,513 visitors, up from 8,764 in October ’05. One Walters visitor wrote in the museum’s guestbook, “Free is one of my favorite four-letter words.”