Conference 2019 - The impact of free admission on museum attendance

Coordination: Antoni Laporte, Joaquina Bobes, Xavier Ulled

Conference dedicated to updating our knowledge of the impact of free admission (and charging) on ??attendance. The aim is to provide empirical evidence that allows us to have better information for making decisions regarding charging, or not, from the start.

Tuesday 8 October 2019

MACBA Auditorium,

Plaça dels Àngels, 1

08001 Barcelona

Does free museum admission encourage attendance? This is a question that the cultural heritage sector has been asking since the beginning of time.

Some argue that, as a public good that promotes knowledge, museums should be just as free as, for example, public libraries. The service that heritage facilities provide to the community for which they work is incompatible with charging an entrance fee to enjoy, learn and be moved by heritage. In addition, museums preserve collective memory and, therefore, an entrance fee cannot be charged to approach the objects that are a reflection of our history and our people. The price discriminates and is a barrier to access, especially among those with fewer economic resources. The recent interest in developing new audiences also recommends not charging an entrance fee, as we cannot place limitations on those people and groups who are still unaware of the value that heritage can bring to them.

In the opposite camp are those other voices that consider it advisable to charge an entrance fee. Arguments such as “what is not paid for is not valued” are often mentioned, while others consider that the barrier is not in the price but in education and social capital and, consequently, those people who are not interested will not stop going to the museum because they have to pay an entrance fee. Others argue that charging an entrance fee generates resources for museums that have always been scarce. Finally, the big question is: who should pay for the heritage? the visitor who enjoys it or the entire community via taxes.

The Observatory of the Public of the Cultural Heritage of Catalonia, in its vocation of supporting museums and other heritage facilities in the country in the knowledge of their visitors and users to create, maintain and develop new audiences and improve the social use of cultural heritage, dedicates its fourth annual Conference to the evaluation of the effect that free admission and charging for admission have on visitor attendance.

This year's conference is dedicated to updating our knowledge of the impact of free admission (and charging) on ??attendance. The Audience Observatory aims to provide empirical evidence that will allow us to have better information for decision-making regarding charging, or not, for admission to heritage facilities.