To be surprised at adults not knowing most museums are free?

[FelineFatale]

I've met recently at least four people who didn't know this. One said they didn't take their children to museums because they can't afford it and the other three just thought you had to pay.

I'm close to two of these people and when I said I was amazed they didn't know this they stated most people think you have to pay for museums.

They don't, surely?!

NoahsArk entry to StoneHenge is free for NT members. The NT has a visitor agreement with EH to allow this.

Most museums aren’t free.

Yes they are in central London but I can only think of one around us that is free, and that’s a small art gallery. Our main museum (we live in a small city in the south) is about £40 for a family. The closest science place is about £60 per family, extra for the planetarium. That is a lot of money.

We do take our dc to lots of museums and the like and they genuinely enjoy them - having had the experience modelled to them from very early on.

But I wouldn’t judge anyone who felt they couldn’t afford it.

And I refuse to pay the science museum donation on principle of how they no longer present it like a donation plus the fact that while the London museums receive all that funding, our local ones don’t.

Well Lockhart the British govt bloody well should be paying for its upkeep! It's entirely shortsighted and neglectful of them not to do so

Jassy I sadly only discovered her books in my forties- how I wish I'd had the pleasure of reading them decades ago. So funny.

CountFosco. Durham cathedral doesn't charge. I go in all the time

Lincoln does though

Controversial opinion: a lot of the big London museums were better before they stopped charging.

The ridiculous over crowding and queues at the Natural History Museum for example are precisely what’s wrong with free museums. They need an advance ticketing system at the very least even if the tickets are free. Or maybe make tickets free in advance to U.K. residents.

Controversial opinion #2: places like that Tate Modern which are free but don’t display the vast majority of their items are really taking the piss. There is a trend at the moment for curators to plan exhibitions and galleries thematically rather than chronologically and it is intensely annoying. You get to see about 5% of the good stuff.

Completely agree @bsc but unfortunately they're not. In the absence of that, charities will have to ask the public to pay.

There's no point getting angry at the museums for charging entry. Get angry at the government instead.

Stonehenge is awful now. I haven't been since it was opened up for an evening in 2012 for an amazing art installation. Usually when I go past on the A303 it's just a massive sheep like herd of people milling around the perimeter.

Avebury OTOH is great. £5 to park, free if you've got EH or NT membership. The Great Barn visitor centre is also pay to enter, but free for EH or NT. The stone circles themselves though are free, as they're covered in public footpaths etc. And if you want a day out and to have a good look at the whole landscape, park at the Long Barrow or Silbury Hill and walk (both free car parking).

The fact that the Science Museum and Natural History Museum in London are free actually makes them a horrible experience. They are simply too busy. It's like being in a supermarket on Christmas Eve. There is some very interesting things at the museums but it's hard to stop and actually look and read the info because people are shoving to get by, you can't talk about what you are looking at with anyone because volume levels are like being at a rock concert. I have been on many school trips with my daughter's school and those are usually better because generally you have gone to see a specific thing rather than the whole museum. But weekend trips in the London museums are quite frankly hell and almost impossible to actually get an enjoyable and educational experience at all.

@ElloBrian the problem with that is where on earth would you display it all? The Louvre and the BM are the same - what's on display is only a tiny fraction of what they have in their stores. But as soon as you take something out of storage you have to pay higher conservation fees, you have to pay more to insure it, you might have to get permission from the actual owner (if it's on long-term loan), you have to either find or build a space to put it in and if you can't then you have to decide what you're going to take off display. It would be impossible for museums to display everything they have.

Lockhart - I do understand that museums and galleries generally need to have some kind of storage for stuff they’re not showing. But in my opinion if you’re in a position where most of what you own isn’t on show then you either need to open another site or you need to accept that perhaps you’re not the best organisation to hold that art/object. For example perhaps the Tate should put a lot of its back collection out on long term loan to other museums and galleries around the U.K. so that people can actually see it. They have wealthy donors who I am sure would like the chance to back such a democratisation of the history of art.

YANBU- if you're referring to London museums, no idea whether museums are free nationally or not.

I for one love the fact that here in London there is so much choice for a day out to a museum- no entrance fee to pay for any of us, if we're organised we'll have a pack lunch so save rather than pay extortionate cafe prices!

The point of museums and galleries is not to own art, after all; it is to display it to the public.

I honestly don’t have a problem saying, “No thanks, I won’t be donating today”.

But I agree, our free museums and galleries are a wonderful national resource. The one in our little northern town is free and we’ve been to loads of fantastic ones in Manchester, Liverpool and Bolton.

My parents live in Wales and their museums are free too. St Fagans in particular is a fantastic day out.

When we go to London it’s particularly nice to be able to dip in and out: one person wants to see Egyptian mummies, another wants to go and look at the Turners. There’s no pressure to keep trudging round to get your moneys worth. Ideal with kids really.

I’m not sure about castigating adults for not knowing museums are free though; it’s just a lifestyle thing. Some people don’t know how much a football match costs. Some would be shocked at the price of cinema tickets.

With a few exceptions, I find museums are rather dull. I’m glad I wasn’t dragged to them as a child.

I disagree, but that's also why I don't mind paying for the entrance. Many museum have made huge efforts to make things interesting for children,
and mine have always been happy.

Yes, you need to be wary of the sheer amount of tourist to go to the Natural History Museum, but we've always had a great time there. The queues are nothing compared to a park anyway, and it's only to see the t-rex or other, most exhibition just allow a smooth flow.

@ElloBrian as Lockhart has said that just isn't feasible, museums have never set out to show everything, it's impossible and also not good for collections, ideally you will rotate objects, exhibit environments are not optimal for long term preservation. With museums you are reliant on their interpretation and like anything there will be trends, but simply displaying everything chronologically isn't going to tell a very dynamic story.

The government can’t pay for everything. What proportion of people going to the big museums would stop going if they had to pay? Even if the tickets were capped at £10 a family?

for one love the fact that here in London there is so much choice for a day out to a museum- no entrance fee to pay for any of us, if we're organised we'll have a pack lunch so save rather than pay extortionate cafe prices!

I do this too! We go and have a picnic outside if it's a nice day.

@ElloBrian no, it is their duty to collect, preserve and make available collections. You have to find a balance between presentation and access. There will be varying types of ownership, there is no obligation to show private collections, but whether collections are public or private there is still a duty of care to ensure they survive for future generations. As I say, it's a delicate balance, one is pointless without the other.

Took my dc to the science museum. The kids interactive part charged £6 each...so £18 (for 3 of us) plus £12 for my travel card. £30...then we had lunch there..£25...yeah yeah, I know I could have taken a packed lunch...then I let them spend £5 each in the gift shop so turned out to be a £60 day out

Yes, I know a lot of what I spent money on was optional and I do massively appreciate that museums are free entry.

I for one love the fact that here in London there is so much choice for a day out to a museum- no entrance fee to pay for any of us

That's great, and i'm glad you're able to make regular use of these places.

It's not quite the same for those of us who live outside the capital.

@ElloBrian I'm afraid that's wishful thinking - museums do have wealthy donors but noway near enough to display everything! The amount of space you'd need to display everything in the NHM or the BM (for example) is phenomenal. You'd need multiple extra NHMs and BMs and Tates and frankly the money isn't there!

Smaller museums are also full to bursting. This is true everywhere. It's not that the Tate is sitting on art and hoarding it away from everyone, it's that there is literally nowhere else for it to go. Unless you start selling things to private buyers.

There is a huge storage crisis in the museums industry currently. It's not immediately apparent (except to those with boring and specialised interests ) but there is genuinely a real problem around storage in the arts and heritage sector. The Museum's Association has published a lot on this if you want to have a Google. Archaeology is being thrown away. Believe me, if there was an alternative, it would have been taken up by now.

My daughter volunteers at our tiny, eclectic (free) town museum. She volunteers unwrapping stuff and cataloguing in their massive out of town storage facility. She says only a tiny fraction of what they have is displayed.

@ElloBrian (sorry to keep picking on your posts! It's an interesting discussion and you're making valid points) just putting something on "long term loan" elsewhere is not as simple as that, we recently had an exhibition locally with items loaned to us from national institutions, it took years to plan, a huge grant to make adaptions to the building as most local museums will not meet national standards, we had three attempted break ins, it was HUGELY stressful for...wait for it...FOUR items!!! There are a lot of liability considerations around this. To build a larger space would literally cost millions and they're struggling as it is with the lack of funding and people not wanting to donate as has been said on this thread, it really isn't as simple as it seems.

Lots of museums have a room for indoor picnics too, if the weather is crap.