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Museum theorists such as Elaine Heumann Gurian point out that admission fees may be the single biggest obstacle preventing museums from fulfilling their missions as educational institutions that are open and accessible to the widest range of visitors from all income levels and backgrounds. But is the financial position of most art museums so precarious that the 5 percent of operating budget provided by admissions fees is indispensable to the survival of the institution? Is there a middle ground between free admission and a standard entrance fee?

Potential visitors—especially families with children—are often concerned about the financial costs associated with a museum visit, such as transportation, parking and lunch. As the costs have risen, visitors expect greater value for their admission dollars.

Many of us have visited museums and seen the words “suggested donation” or “recommended amount” next to the admission fees. The actual amount collected per visitor is often significantly lower than the suggested amount

by a changing social consensus about the ethics of holding on to such items, and further strengthened by a backlash against Germany’s flagship cultural project: the Humboldt Forum,

Germany’s approach also contrasts with those of the United States and British governments, which have left decisions up to individual institutions

some of the most important museums in England cannot return their Benin Bronzes, even if they wanted to, without a change in the law. That includes the British Museum, which owns about 900 of the artifacts, arguably the world’s finest collection.

a new collections policy that requires Smithsonian museums to collaborate with the communities represented by their holdings and to return or share ownership of items that might have been previously stolen or acquired under duress.

The policy requires human remains “be treated with dignity and respect, as those once living, and not objectified as a scientific resource.”

As Smithsonian officials celebrated the deaccessioning of works held by its African Art museum, they ignored another 21 Benin sculptures in the collection of the National Museum of Natural History

The exhibition, titled You Like This: A Democratic Approach to the Museum Collection, will be on display October 6 to January 15. All work in the exhibition will have been chosen by the public through crowdsourcing.

three-step process

advisory pane

Today, there are many individual examples of museums and other heritage learning institutions providing learning activities for senior citizens. But as of yet, there has not been any aggregate analysis on how cultural heritage institutions in Europe deal with these issues. The research group on museums and the ageing population will be dedicated to find good examples, analyse them and spread the results through the LEM-network to the inspiration of others. The group will start by creating an overview of experience: what has been done and what has been fruitful (and perhaps not so fruitful) in the different national contexts. The overview will be based on ideas, examples, practices etc, collected by the research group members respectively.