Confidential To The Free Library: You Should Totally Steal This Idea
Did you know that, in Chicago, you can take out a “museum pass” with your library card for free? The pass is good for like every museum in the whole city, and it’s not just the “free” part that makes us love, love, love this idea. It’s also great because it takes museums out of the realm of tourism — which is great, but sorry, museums belong to residents, too — and it also puts museums back in the realm of “information,” which is there for sharing and not for gift shops. But back to the free part. With a lot of museums raising their prices – including the Philadelphia Museum of Art — this would be a really nice thing to give struggling parents a leg up, and unemployos somewhere else to hang out besides the dumpster behind the liquor store. Think it over, Freeb?
June 30th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
We’ve got that in Narberth, yo.
June 30th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
“General admission will go from $14 to $16 per person, senior admission will go from $12 to $14, and student admission will go from $10 to $12.” Pay-what-you-wish is now once a month.
Dayyymmmn. Maybe if PMA weren’t so driven (haha) to build giant ugly parking garages all over our parkland, they could afford to keep prices somewhere near affordable.
June 30th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
Isn’t the art museum free if you get there by noon on Sunday?
This would be a nice gesture but since 52% of our adults can’t even read, I don’t see many people taking advantage of it.
June 30th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
re: “General admission will go from $14 to $16 per person, senior admission will go from $12 to $14, and student admission will go from $10 to $12.”
The price increase would really only be acceptable if there is no extra charge for the “special/featured” exhibits that are usually an additional $10 above the general admission.
Also, wouldn’t it be great if a wealthy benefactor took care of admission for all like at the ICA?
June 30th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
re: “Also, wouldn’t it be great if a wealthy benefactor took care of admission for all like at the ICA?”
That’s if The Free Library decides not run with a great idea forwarded by Philebrity.
June 30th, 2009 at 12:48 pm
It also doesn’t help the City cut PMA funding from $3m to $2.4m. In an ideal world, regional assets like the PMA, Fairmount Park, the Zoo, stadiums, etc, would be funded by taxes taken from the entire region and not just Philadelphians.
June 30th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Did you know that the library loans out passes to the Please Touch Museum? http://libwww.freelibrary.org/PressRel/Pressrel.cfm?id=343
This program has been around for a while, and I believe it’s still active. There’s a phone number in the press release for questions.
I agree that it would be awesome to have more passes available for other museums!
June 30th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
In an ideal world, the region would value and correspondingly fund assets like the PMA / the zoo / Fairmount Park on an equal level with the sports stadiums.
June 30th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
For the past few summers the Art Museum has given the Free Library passes to give away as summer reading game prizes. This year the library got fewer passes than previous years but hopefully the branches still have some as I write this. If you have a child under age twelve go to any local Free Library Branch and sign your kid up for the Summer Reading game – passes available while they last.
Also – each month 11 branches of the Free Library get passes for 4 to the Please Touch Museum – all you need is a valid adult library card from the Free Library. First come first served on the passes -they usually run out by the second week of the month. The 11 branches are the Children’s Departments of Parkway Central, Northeast Regional, Joseph E Coleman/Northwest Regional and Blackwell/West Philly Regional and the Lovett, Logan, Cecil B Moore, Durham, Frankford, South Philadelphia (broad and morris), Widener and Wynnefield Branches
Happy Summer Everyone!