As public finances come under increasing pressure, is it right that we should be able to go into public museums and galleries without paying an entry fee? The right to free entry to national and local collections goes back to their foundations in the 18th and 19th centuries and the imposition of entry charges only occurred for about 30 years in the 20th century. Also, economic analysis shows that free museums and galleries are more efficient in the use of their resources than equivalent sites that charge for entry.
All welcome and free
All Welcome and Free for All are two statements used by the Tate Galleries. This symbolises the current position for most public museums and galleries in the UK and certainly true for the major collections in the North West of England.
The UK is an outlier: the Louvre in Paris charges €22, the Uffizi Gallery in Florence is €19, and MOMA in New York is $30. This makes a trip to the National Museums in Liverpool (all free) seem like a bargain.
However, charging is not universal in other countries; the Smithsonian Galleries in Washington do not charge, nor does the Getty in Los Angeles, and in most European countries young people under 26 have free admission to the majority of museums. Even where museums charge, they may be free to locals on certain days.
The reasons for free entry
So why should a museum or a gallery be free? Surely, they are a drain on resources, a middle/upper class perk, a business competing in the crowded entertainment sector that should sink or swim or be outcompeted by on-line offerings. Many museums in the UK started out as private collections that were opened or given to the public by the wealthy individuals who started them. A good local example is the Lady Lever Gallery on the Wirral, or nationally, the British Museum which was originally based on John Sloane’s collection.
Other galleries were formed by local wealthy people such as the Royal Liverpool Institution, founded “for the Promotion of Literature Science and the Arts”, whose collection is now in the Walker Art Gallery. The less well funded Manchester Institution (It too became a Royal Institution later under the patronage of George IV) led to the Manchester Art Gallery that was given to the City Council in 1882, on condition that the Council spend £2000 per annum on art for the next 20 years.
Bolton Museum was founded by a bequest of £5,000 from Samuel Taylor Chadwick for “…building, furnishing and maintenance of a Museum of Natural History in the Bolton Park with free entry”. Hence, the foundation of these organisations was for the benefit of the people, local authorities gladly took on this responsibility and our major museums and galleries in the North West are free to all.
Not all governments agreed with free entry in the past
The idea that a museum or a gallery is for public benefit and not an entertainment to be paid for goes back to the Victorian era. When the idea of charging for entry to the National Museums was raised in the 1970s, Lord Annan pointed out in debate in the House of Lords that J.M.W. Turner’s bequest of his paintings to the nation was on the condition that access to them be free. However, despite this intervention, the Conservative Government in 1972 passed the Museums and Galleries Admission Charges Act empowering the trustees of the British Museum, Natural History Museum, National Gallery and the National Museum and Galleries of Scotland to apply admission charges if they so wished. This allowed these institutions and other national collections that had historically been free, to now charge for entrance.
When the Victoria and Albert Museum introduced the charge, its visitor numbers fell by 20% compared to the previous year. Similar falls in admission numbers occurred throughout the sector, however, it was significant that the British Museum, the National Gallery and Tate Gallery did not introduce charges and remained Free and Open to All. The charging regime was reversed in 2001 when the then Labour Government followed its manifesto pledge to return to a free admissions policy. They also sweetened the pill by the “Refund of Tax to Museums and Galleries Order (2001)”, that allowed the museum and galleries to claim back VAT in the absence of an admissions charge. This is because, if there was no admission charge expense with incurred VAT, then they could not back claim VAT expenses incurred in running the museum, which would have had an additional financial hit on top of the loss of fee income. Note, that by not changing the 1992 act, there is no prohibition of charging by the National Museums and Galleries, they have just been persuaded to return to free admission aided by a tax incentive.
Charges are becoming more common
What about other museums in the UK? A survey by the Association of Independent Museums in 2023 found that 64% museums and galleries charge for general admission, a significant increase from its previous survey in 2016 that found 51% charging. This is possibly a result of the significant impact of COVID on the sector. The breakdown in the category of museums that remain free is interesting. All university museums in the survey remained free to access and all national museums only charge for special exhibitions.
Local authority museums are mostly free, with 71% still providing free access, but most of those that have left Local Authority control, as well as other private museums, now charge, with only 30% being free. There is very little variation in these statistics across the UK, with possibly a slightly greater fraction of museums offering free access in the South East and London.
Charging visitors means higher running costs
Should museums be charging at all? Before we get into a political discussion, there is an interesting economic argument. ‘Remuseum’ is a research programme studying the running of art museums in the USA. They use a metric of cost per visitor, which in simple terms is the full annual running cost of a museum divided by the total number of visitors per year. They found that the mean cost of a visitor in the free museum sector was $86 and that of charging museums was $108.
Given that all the art museums surveyed had mission statements for prioritising public engagement, the data suggests that those which charge were less efficient than free entry museums in their utilisation of resources to achieve their goals. Obviously, this is a simplistic metric, but it illustrates that charging visitors for admission is only one component of how a museum or gallery is funded because the cost per visitor significantly exceeds any admission charge
National and regional museums and galleries get some form of central or local government funding support. They all have shops and catering businesses, and they can also make money on image rights. Many foster a sense of community through membership, supporter groups and volunteering opportunities. However, these options are available to all museums and are used by fee charging museums too. Thus, the logic that charging an entry fee will improve the financial stability of a museum or gallery in the long term seems illusory. All it appears to achieve is to increase costs in some financial equivalence of Parkinson’s law.
Entrance fee charging should be resisted
The analysis seems fairly clear, even if the apparent reasons for this are not, resist the introduction of fees for museum and gallery entrance. They won’t make the institute financially more secure in the future and could have unintended consequences. Private museums are often in need of local or national governmental support if they are launching an appeal to assist with an acquisition or unexpected cost or effect of policy change. Introducing charges always leads to a decrease in visitor numbers and then you look less valued to the local community.
‘Remuseum’ found that introducing charges had a disproportionate influence on local visitors, who could no longer “pop in” for a brief visit without paying.
What can you do to improve your local museum and gallery? First, just visit them, they are great local institutions, and an increased footfall and visitor numbers improves their profile to local politicians. It doesn’t cost anything and, if enough local people show that it is important to them, it’s likely to stay that way. Spend some money there, have tea and cake in the café, buy your birthday cards from their shop. If you can afford it, join their supporters or friends of the museum organisation. You’ll probably get a discount in the café and shop as well as access to free talks and tours.
The North West of England has great free museums
The North West of England has some of the UK’s most popular free museums and galleries outside London. The top 10 are listed below in order of the number of visitors in 2024 with equivalent paid for attractions in comparison.
Top 10 Free Museums, Galleries and Historic Buildings in the Northwest. Data from Visit Britain.
