Pay More at Door: Museums Adjust to Hard Times
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MSI executives say the switch to a paid admission system has also resulted in a more accurate count of attendance and, consequently, a lower number of “real” visitors. “Before the admission fee was instituted,” explains spokeswoman Deborah Lucien, “People may have stopped at the museum just to use the restrooms on the way to the lakefront, but they would have been counted as visitors by the clickers at the door.”
Relative to the city’s other major museums, the Museum of Science and Industry arrived late at the decision to charge admission. The Field Museum of Natural History did so as far back as 1894, when it cost adults 25 cents and children 10 cents to enter. The Field currently charges a mandatory $3 for adults and $2 for children under 17. The Art Institute began charging admission in 1971 and currently has a “suggested” adult admission of $6; figures indicate that on average visitors actually pay somewhere between $3.50 and $3.75. With the opening of the Oceanarium exhibit last April, the Shedd Aquarium has one of the city’s highest mandatory admissions: $7 for adults and $5 for children who wish to visit the Oceanarium and the regular aquarium exhibits.
