Chicago grumbles for art's sake as ticket prices jump to $16
The Art Institute of Chicago is opening a new wing that drew rave reviews from the city's top architecture critic. It's also charging $16 admission for a visit that was free a few years ago, and Chicagoans are fuming.
"That's the last thing people want to hear in a recession," said John Wallace, 55, a digital technology consultant in suburban Westmont, Illinois. "I think it could backfire and keep people out."
Originally the increase was to $18 but the Chicago Park District voted Wednesday to cut the admission price by $2.
Park District spokeswoman Jessica Maxey-Faulkner says the board also cut rates for students and seniors by $2, to $10. And it raised the age at which children will get free admission to 14 from 12.
Revenue from higher ticket prices will help the Art Institute itself weather the recession, said James Cuno, president of the museum, which is home to Georges Seurat's "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte -- 1884." He's also counting on the $283 million addition driving an increase in attendance.
"Nothing good comes without risk," Cuno, 58, said in an interview. "We think we're taking a reasonable risk in this regard."
Cuno so far has avoided coping measures that some museums have taken. The J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles cut 205 jobs, or 14 percent of its staff, in April, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York eliminated 74 merchandising jobs in March.
The wing opening May 16 gives the Art Institute 35 percent more display space, making it the second-largest art museum in the U.S. Attendance of about 1.5 million this year will increase to 1.9 million in the year starting July 1, Cuno estimated.
The facade of the Modern Wing, designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, is clad in glass and in limestone from the same Indiana quarry as the museum's 1893 Beaux Arts main building. A sunshade of 2,500 aluminum louvers filters daylight into the galleries.
Private contributions paid for the wing, including $19 million from Kenneth C. Griffin, founder of Citadel Investment Group LLC, according to the museum. John D. Nichols, the retired head of Marmon Holdings Inc., gave another $19 million for a pedestrian bridge connecting the museum to Millenium Park, according to a museum news release.
Only about a fifth of the Art Institute's contemporary works have ever been seen by the public, Cuno said. The Modern Wing allows the museum to display more of that collection and doubles its educational space.
The price increase comes three years after the Art Institute dropped suggested contributions in favor of mandatory fees. General admission is going up to $18, and senior and student tickets 71 percent, to $12, starting May 23.
The largest U.S. art museum, the Metropolitan, still only suggests a contribution, of $20. Two other museums in New York have mandatory admission, $20 at the Museum of Modern Art and $18 at the Guggenheim Museum.
In London, the British Museum, which gets half its funding from taxpayers, has been free since it opened in 1759. Former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair reversed the policy of his predecessor, Margaret Thatcher, and eliminated admission fees for national museums in 2001. Attendance rose 75 percent in four years.
"The increase seems like a bit much," said Kelly Vanderbrug, 36, an art professor at North Park University in Chicago. "I don't know if people will still come."
Museum-goers may accept the price once they realize the $18 includes special exhibits, she said. That's one step Cuno is taking to keep the Art Institute affordable.
He's eliminating extra charges for special exhibits and coat-checks, giving city residents a $2 discount, raising the age limit on children's free admission to 14, and increasing the number of entrance passes available on a rotating basis through libraries. The museum is extending its free hours to Thursday evenings, Friday evenings in the summer, and all of February.
Even with concessions, raising ticket prices is insensitive when the city's unemployment rate rose to 9.3 percent in April from 5.6 percent a year earlier, said Edward M. Burke, an alderman from Chicago's southwest side.
"Somebody's got to stand up for the taxpayer of Chicago and say this is not appropriate," Burke said. He criticized the museum's salaries as excessive.
Cuno was paid a salary of $371,985 in fiscal 2007 and has a $200,000 interest-free mortgage loan from the Art Institute, according to the most recent filing with the Illinois attorney general's office. The compensation is comparable to that of other big museum directors, he said.
The value of the museum's endowment has fallen almost 24 percent since July, to $489 million. It generates a quarter of the operating budget, so Cuno froze the staff headcount at 600.
Last year's budget of $83 million included $6.6 million from the city. The budget is jumping to about $100 million with the new wing, said Chai Lee, a museum spokesman.
Frank Monte, 60, who runs a payroll company in Rochester, New York, and is past president of the city's 132-year-old art club, said he'd rather pay higher admission than have the Art Institute sell pieces from its collection.
"We don't provide enough support for the arts in this country," Monte said. "It's a shame."
People eager to see the new wing can avoid buying $18 tickets if they hurry. Target Corp. is sponsoring free admission this weekend, the museum said in a news release.