Archaeologists do it in holes: Tales from the stratigraphy

[mongers]

Email this morning from Salsibury museum about the major Stonehenge exhibition at the British museum, because Salisbury has loaned quite a lot of exhibits and I'm a member, we get 25% off the ticket price. :gasp:

[Josquius]

Email this morning from Salsibury museum about the major Stonehenge exhibition at the British museum, because Salisbury has loaned quite a lot of exhibits and I'm a member, we get 25% off the ticket price. :gasp:

I hate it when they do that. Last time I was at the British museum they had some special Japan exhibition on. Thought it seemed interesting so went along... Oh that'll be 30 quid.
Wut?
Who the hell is paying for that?
Madness. It's a museum. It should be free.

[garbon]

 

[Grey Fox]

Well, he's right in a very narrow set of circumstances museum should be free. When everything that is in them you stole from somewhere else.

I went to 2 museums last friday, they weren't free. The items on display weren't stolen.

[Sophie Scholl]

I hate it when they do that. Last time I was at the British museum they had some special Japan exhibition on. Thought it seemed interesting so went along... Oh that'll be 30 quid.
Wut?
Who the hell is paying for that?
Madness. It's a museum. It should be free.

As someone who worked for the National Park Service and has wanted to find a museum job, I can assure you that museums and the like need every single penny they can get and far, far more. A lot of which is because everyone has the mindset you do. No one wants to pay for admission and everyone things someone else is funding things. They aren't. Unless you're at the very top of the pyramid, the odds of making even a remotely decent wage in the museum field is almost nil. I've seen numerous job offers that require a Masters, aren't full-time, have no benefits, and pay under $12 an hour.

The Humanities, and by connection museums and public parks and sites, have no real place in the world a lot of people in power want as they induce pesky things like critical thinking, seeing connections between people of the world, sparking interest in things other than work, and a whole host of evils that poison the cogs of the worker machine. They're meant for donations to get one's name on a building, exhibit, or wing, galas, and as a status symbol amongst the elite, not for access to the masses. We're in a second Gilded Age.

[Josquius]

I hate it when they do that. Last time I was at the British museum they had some special Japan exhibition on. Thought it seemed interesting so went along... Oh that'll be 30 quid.
Wut?
Who the hell is paying for that?
Madness. It's a museum. It should be free.

As someone who worked for the National Park Service and has wanted to find a museum job, I can assure you that museums and the like need every single penny they can get and far, far more. A lot of which is because everyone has the mindset you do. No one wants to pay for admission and everyone things someone else is funding things. They aren't. Unless you're at the very top of the pyramid, the odds of making even a remotely decent wage in the museum field is almost nil. I've seen numerous job offers that require a Masters, aren't full-time, have no benefits, and pay under $12 an hour.

The Humanities, and by connection museums and public parks and sites, have no real place in the world a lot of people in power want as they induce pesky things like critical thinking, seeing connections between people of the world, sparking interest in things other than work, and a whole host of evils that poison the cogs of the worker machine. They're meant for donations to get one's name on a building, exhibit, or wing, galas, and as a status symbol amongst the elite, not for access to the masses. We're in a second Gilded Age.

I used to go out with someone who ran a museum in Switzerland. I know how broken the system is in some places.

In the UK however museums are meant to be free. It's a common sense policy that makes them accessible to lower income people who otherwise would never step foot inside one.

[The Brain]

Sweden has been going back and forth on state museum entrance fees (ie museums belonging to the central government). Currently they are free. It may or may not be a good policy, but one effect is that the middle and upper class people who tend to frequent museums save money, and people who have no interest in museums (not unusually people from the working class or lower) have to pay even more for them.

[Sheilbh]

In the UK however museums are meant to be free. It's a common sense policy that makes them accessible to lower income people who otherwise would never step foot inside one.

-Ish. National museums are free in the UK, although special exhibitions have always charged an admissions fee.

I am unsure on that policy because national museums are overwhelmingly in London and very popular with tourists. They have free entrance while many non-national museums, such as local or civic museums are not free. In addition those national museums have a dreadful record at really being national (a possible semi-exception is the Imperial War Museum) - so for example the V&A took over responsibility of the Bradford based National Media Museum and decided the best thing to do with their collection was move it to London so it could be an "international resource" (presumably because foreigners are physically unable to enter Bradford).

I think there's an argument for saying we should be rinsing tourists (with free entry for residents) at the national museums and using that to cross subsidise museums and galleries across the country. Alternately as a condition of them being free and getting a good chunk of state funding they need to be sending a big chunk of their material on tour around the country (with free entry) - especially as huge chunks of it are currently just in archives.

[Josquius]

In the UK however museums are meant to be free. It's a common sense policy that makes them accessible to lower income people who otherwise would never step foot inside one.

-Ish. National museums are free in the UK, although special exhibitions have always charged an admissions fee.

I am unsure on that policy because national museums are overwhelmingly in London and very popular with tourists. They have free entrance while many non-national museums, such as local or civic museums are not free. In addition those national museums have a dreadful record at really being national (a possible semi-exception is the Imperial War Museum) - so for example the V&A took over responsibility of the Bradford based National Media Museum and decided the best thing to do with their collection was move it to London so it could be an "international resource" (presumably because foreigners are physically unable to enter Bradford).

I think there's an argument for saying we should be rinsing tourists (with free entry for residents) at the national museums and using that to cross subsidise museums and galleries across the country. Alternately as a condition of them being free and getting a good chunk of state funding they need to be sending a big chunk of their material on tour around the country (with free entry) - especially as huge chunks of it are currently just in archives.

Sure. No disagreement there. I've seen a few places around the world do this.
Incidentally this is actually a brexit benefit - we can charge Europeans more too. Woo. Finally.

I remember when I visited Brighton there was even a museum there which had a different much lower price (free?) for locals vs people from outside the city.

[Maladict]

Different prices for locals and visitors makes a lot of sense to me, especially in non-Western countries.

[crazy canuck]

Careful, when I suggested this was fairly common a while back there was disbelief and blowback.

[Jacob]

First hand account from indigenous point of view of the battle of Little Big Horn: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/unreserved/battle-little-bighorn-letter-brampton-1.6404159

[Admiral Yi]

Sweden has been going back and forth on state museum entrance fees (ie museums belonging to the central government). Currently they are free. It may or may not be a good policy, but one effect is that the middle and upper class people who tend to frequent museums save money, and people who have no interest in museums (not unusually people from the working class or lower) have to pay even more for them.

 

[viper37]

First hand account from indigenous point of view of the battle of Little Big Horn: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/unreserved/battle-little-bighorn-letter-brampton-1.6404159

great discovery!

Playing Age of Empires III Definitive Edition is the first time I heard of the battle of greasy grass. 

[mongers]

Oh, got an interesting project to do for Salsibury museum, though not sure I have all of the necessary skills.