Disappointed at $20 admission fee

[jcruise86]

I don't like the $20 admission fee at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, nor at the Huntington in San Marino, and I don't like it at a museum devoted to Walt Disney.

I love the free admission at the Tate Modern in London, and I'm glad it's so much more popular than museum like L.A.'s LACMA.

Diane, perhaps time on a California winery has made you and your family a bit out of touch with middle and working-class Americans. I don't mean that to be rude, but wouldn't it be nice if your museum could inspire more lower-income kids with big dreams like your father? I'm sure you help Bay Area school groups get in, but what about lower-income families visiting SF?

I can't even imagine that that is the most profitable price point. Far more would visit with a $12 admission for adults and $5 admission for kids.

[Second Star]

Same point as in the other thread... How many lower-income families even both to visit the museums close to them?

And you comment about lower-income families visiting SF would imply that they are visiting for tourism reasons. As a resident of the Bay Area, I can comfortably says that implications is almost laughable. San Francisco is a very expensive city to visit, nothing in SF is really cheap. I am in the city a few times a month, and really never see Ma and Pa middle American , fresh off the farm, visiting the big city for the first time, in SF.

While you claim you don't want to be rude, I think it is rude to challenge Diane or her family's motives for the Musuem or the community without knowing what programs they have or don't have available. There are many things that go on there that don't get any coverage. The WDFM charges a reasonable price for a great experience. Reducing the entry price would only tell the public that they don't really value what they have to offer and cheapen the experience.

Just for arguement sake, the next time you are in one of more favorably prices museums, look around you and come back and tell me just how many more people you see visiting?

[Broadway Guru]

I don't like the $20 admission fee at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, nor at the Huntington in San Marino, and I don't like it at a museum devoted to Walt Disney.

I love the free admission at the Tate Modern in London, and I'm glad it's so much more popular than museum like L.A.'s LACMA.

Do you really expect a museum in the most expensive American city to have free admission? (Yes, folks, SF is more expensive to live in than NY.) I think the best you could hope for is for it to participate in some sort of Free Museum Day like the museums in Sacramento.

Speaking of publicly owned, I have a feeling that the free admission at the museum you mentioned in London has something to do w/ the much higher taxes over there. TANSTAAFL, you know.

[sir clinksalot]

Going to places like the WDFM, Disneyland, WDW, etc is a privilege, not a right. Back when I was in my early 20's there were PLENTY of things I couldn't do due to $$. Heck, even now there are things. I'd love to go to Europe or WDW or Tokyo this summer, but it's just not in the cards.

[techskip]

If you really want to see it then you will budget for it and go see it. My wife and I are "middle America" and we still manage to get the kids out to see things... even on a tight budget!

[sediment]

Don't bother going to that Harry Potter Exhibition, then. We happened to be up in Seattle for one of the last days and balked at the price to merely look at wardrobe and sets. $25 each, plus, if you want, more at the gift shop.

[Melonballer]

Don't bother going to that Harry Potter Exhibition, then. We happened to be up in Seattle for one of the last days and balked at the price to merely look at wardrobe and sets. $25 each, plus, if you want, more at the gift shop.

The harry potter exhibit was so overrated. You made a good decision to not go.

In comparison the Walt Disney museum is underrated. I'd have paid $30 to go. It is an amazing experience. Even my father, who is not a big disney fan, loved it.

[JerrodDRagon]

Next time go to the Exploratorium, its like 12 bucks (maybe 15) and they have a lot to do and see there and its really fun.

[BC_DisneyGeek]

The WDFM charges a reasonable price for a great experience.

Not unlike Disneyland.

If someone can afford to visit SF, surely they can afford to pay $20 to visit a museum. And if not, there are plenty of other SF attractions that cost less, or nothing.

Not necesscarily saying this is the case here, but often when people say they want the price of something lowered (see any thread when Disneyland admission prices are raised), so that "the average person can afford it", what they really mean is they want the price lowered so that they personally can afford it.

The fact is, unless something is free, there will always be someone who is priced out of visiting. Like Sir Clinksalot's example, I too would love to visit WDW or Tokyo this summer, but can't necesscarily afford it. That's life. I'm not going to complain that the airlines are "out of touch with the working class" just because I personally don't have the money.

[jcruise86]

Next time go to the Exploratorium, its like 12 bucks (maybe 15) and they have a lot to do and see there and its really fun.

Thanks, JarrodDRagon, we will. (I just Googled it and it's $15 for adults.)

SF is expensive and I wish the Walt museum were located elsewhere. It still bothers me that the Disney-Millers are operating a museum that Walt Disney might not have been able to visit as a kid.

A visit to a theme park seems like a birthright for most Americans. I taught lower-income students in Los Angeles and almost all of these kids had been to Disneyland and Six Flags Magic Mountain. Expensive museums, in contrast, are something that are not seen as a necessary to budget for. Second Star, you asked, "How many lower-income families even both[er] to visit the museums close to them?"

Why not ask instead, "How can we attract lower-income families to museums?"

And you added, "[Your] comment about lower-income families visiting SF would imply that they are visiting for tourism reasons. As a resident of the Bay Area, I can comfortably says that implications [sic] is almost laughable." Enjoy your comfortable (almost) laughter. Like it or not, your beautiful city does attract a variety of tourists.

Second Star, you are ". . . in the city a few times a month, and really never see Ma and Pa middle American , fresh off the farm, visiting the big city for the first time, in SF." Wow, you sound impressively knowledgeable about Midwesterners in 2011! Yup, if they're not in overalls, they couldn't be from the MW. And if (your words again) "Reducing the entry price would only tell the public that they don't really value what they have to offer and cheapen the experience," then think how much visitors would value the museum if admission were $50 or $100 per person. I guess that's why no one values the free Smithsonian. The Walt Disney Museum is not as grand as SF's Exploratorium, so a lower admission price might help it fight its (reported) disappointing attendance.

[Second Star]

No more bothering than Walt Disney creating a theme park that he probably would not have been able to visit as a child.

It occurs to me that we have not defined what constitutes a lower income family. Seems that can have a rather broad meaning depending on one’s POV, and serious impede reasonable discussion of what is and isn’t too much.

But, it would definitely appear by your claim of most children, even those of income challenged families, visiting theme parks, that entertainment priorities are very different. And comparing the cost of visit a theme park to the cost of an “expensive” museum is like comparing steak to hamburger, with the museums being the hamburger. Please get real.

You are correct; San Francisco is a beautiful city and attracts a variety of people for a variety of reasons. It is also a city that has a variety of activity available in a broad price range to fit most budgets. As techskip so aptly put it, if someone coming to SF for a visit and wants to visit the WDFM, they’ll budget for it. BTW, I am sorry you completely missed the colloquial hyperbolic intent of my middle American comment, but it seems you believe anyone should be able to do whatever they want to do. Sorry, not going to happen in our lifetimes.

You counter that raising the WDFM admission fee to ridiculously level into support of my value perception claim, is nothing more than weak attempt to obfuscate an issue for which you have no viable argument, and I rather doubt that someone who cannot afford the $20 admission at the WDFM is going to be any more capable of affording the $15 admission to the Exploratorium.

Finally, your claim that the Smithsonian is free is the most laughable of your statements. With the Smithsonian receiving about 70% of its funding from the federal government, America taxpayers’ pay an admission fee every time they pay their taxes, whether they visit the Museum’s facilities or not.
As for the claims that attendance figures are disappointing, I can tell you as a member and a regular visitor, that I have not heard one staff member claim the number are disappointing. Yes, they have not met the overly optimistic initial estimates, but they are not disappointing. I attend most weekend events, and can tell you that, with a few exceptions, these events continue to draw near capacity attendance rates.

The attendance rates are more a factor of advertising then admission costs. I speak to Disney fans from L.A. to S.F on a regular basis, many as rabid a fan as myself. I am continually surprised by the number of very knowledgeable fans who have no knowledge of the WDFM, even in San Francisco. You might also be interested to know that there are many, particularly non-native, San Franciscans who don’t even know that the Presidio exists within their city; much less that it houses a Museum. Even making the admission free is not going to fix that issue.

As is the same with most views, the issues are far more complex than are seen by a cursory limited observations, and the solutions are equally complex as a result. Something many choice to ignore, and other us to exploit their own personal agendas.

[jcruise86]

Please get real. . . . you believe anyone should be able to do whatever they want to do. Sorry, not going to happen in our lifetimes. . . . your claim that the Smithsonian is free is the most laughable of your statements. . . the issues are far more complex than are seen by a cursory limited observations, and the solutions are equally complex as a result. Something many choice to ignore, and other us to exploit their own personal agendas.

The popular Smithsonian is free to visit, subsidized by taxpayers and donors, including the nice English man who got it started. And the Disney museum is subsidized by the Disney family.

I don't "believe anyone should be able to do whatever they want to do."

[Second Star]

The popular Smithsonian is free to visit, subsidized by taxpayers and donors, including the nice English man who got it started. And the Disney museum is subsidized by the Disney family.

I don't "believe anyone should be able to do whatever they want to do."

With 70% of it's funding coming from federal appropriations, I say that it is more that just subsidized by the taxpayers.

Your claim that it is free to visit is not much other than a semantics dodge of the issue. It is not free.

[jcruise86]

But I didn't pay anything to get in!

Next you're gonna tell me that the free Turkey burger I got a Carl's Jr. (with purchase of similar burger) wasn't free.

[Second Star]

But I didn't pay anything to get in!

Next you're gonna tell me that the free Turkey burger I got a Carl's Jr. (with purchase of similar burger) wasn't free.

A marketeer's wet dream!