RE: Galleries & Museums in New York City - Photography
>Yes, but this is an article from a newspaper? Yes, the New York Sun. I looked into it a bit more and the relationship between the city and the museum is fairly complex - the city owns the building and land, the nonprofit holds the art in trust. But it's not that the museum is just a renter, because the money flow is in the other direction - as part of this membership in the New York Cultural Institutions Group the city kicks in millions of dollars a year. Because of this the city can dictate terms to the museum to a certain extent - the museum is in the end much like a regulated utility. I think it's fairly clear that part of why they raised their suggested donation was that the New York MoMA raised their rates and they didn't want to look like they were lesser quality or whatever, but that's neither here nor there. Generally speaking this kind of subsidy - like most cultural subsides - can be viewed as a subsidy for the middle class since the rich can afford it anyway and the poor can't afford even the regular admission. To avoid this typically cities and other institutions (colleges, etc) who are major (effectively controlling) donors attach some strings - making it a suggested donation, making there be some free days (which wealthier types avoid like the plague), having generous deductions for locals (show your ID to get a discount) - I've seen several ways of doing it as I travel around but the point is to make sure that everybody benefits. The city of New York appears to prefer the donation system, since that's what they're requiring, and that way people of all income levels can go without trying to take the fourth Tuesday of the month off of work. Anyway, the whys don't really matter. The bottom line is it's a great museum, and they've set it up so you can kick in what you think is fair, and it seems to be a pretty functional system. Oh, and the food there's pretty good too, so you can support the museum that way as well. Hopefully next time in I'm out that way I'll have enough time to do more than a mad overwhelming dash through the place! Doug
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