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Kids today just don't know what they're missing
By adamg on Fri, 02/10/2006 - 3:44pm
Be of Be Be Re finds it sad that the Museum of Fine Arts has resorted to things like tapa-and-cosmos singles nights to draw in the younger crowd. Setting aside the issue of whether lower admission prices might work just as well, she writes:
... Give me the old Free Wednesday Nights in the East-Asian wing where a girl could get picked up without pretense by a scruffy guy clutching one from Mishima's oeuvre interrupting her reverie over wood grain patterns in block prints to ask if she was into knot-tying. ...
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Comments
I'm kind of partial on this one, so excuse me ...
Anyone who knows me knows I'm Johnny-one-note on the MFA. Mostly because I like it, but also because I have a vested interest in it staying strong and popular (our mortgage payments rely mostly on the MFA sending my household a weekly paycheck).
If she is talking about "First Fridays", first, it's nothing new. It's been done, every first Friday, for maybe five years. It's a huge success. It doesn't take the place of any other event at the museum, it's in addition to everything else going on. It's not detracting from the art at all. That it became a meat-market was not foreseen (I think the Museum was more shocked than anyone that it did). First Fridays during the summer is great, because, at least in the past, it was held outside, allowing people to mingle and enjoy each other's company (and some good music).
Regarding the cost of admission - I think the Museum is #2 in cost of admission, among all major museums in the US. That sucks. However, I believe they also have the most "free" hours or liberal admission policy, of any major museum. For example, elementary school-aged students are always free, after 3 PM and on weekends. College students get in free, with valid ID. The Museum is free, Wednesday afternoons, after 4:00 PM.
And, of course, you get in free if you're a Member (although that isn't really free, now, is it?).
And, you can get free passes at any Boston Public Library. And, many major businesses are contributors to the Museum, and their employees get in free, too.
Lower admissions wouldn't necessarily bring in any more people. Anyone concerned with price can probably find a way to go for free.
Most of the time, I feel as though I'm the only one who's paying to get in!