Dallas Museum makes art free for all

[woo me with science]

7. Playing devil's advocate to your devil's advocate.

Last edited Sun Dec 2, 2012, 01:19 PM - Edit history (4)

You make some important points...The government status of the Smithsonian seems to be exactly what you would highlight here.

But as for being devalued because of being free...that is exactly the opposite of my experience. Because the museums at the Smithsonian were free and we could wander into them at will, running up and down the mall to go to Air and Space, and then Natural History, and then American History and the Hirshhorn, we really felt of them as our own, even as children. There was an intimacy and connectedness to the whole place that made us feel that we could accomplish any of the wonderful things we saw there... that they were all ours and part of us. The free access mader us feel a part of them; we were protective of them and valued them much more highly as a result.

By contrast, what I remember most about my first trip to a museum in another city is being behind a rope while we paid for tickets and then going quietly and submissively through the halls as a guest. It all felt more removed and outside of our access, unless someone else deigned to allow us to come in, and we knew we would be evicted at the end of the tour. The feeling was more of being permitted, for a fee, to peek into the magnificent things other people have and do, without any real sense that we could ever be a part of it.