Too bad

The recent announcement that the Indianapolis Museum of Art will begin charging a $7 admission on most days starting in May 2005 didn’t come as a surprise. The IMA is in the throes of a $74 million renovation project. There will be three new museum wings and 50 percent more gallery space, an outdoor garden court and other, expanded facilities. “We need to raise the bar continually with acquisitions of great works of art, superb exhibitions and engaging programming,” said Anthony Hirschel, the IMA’s director and CEO.

This kind of talk isn’t cheap. The IMA has clearly arrived at a defining moment; the museum’s leadership is determined to set an ambitious course designed to position the IMA as a major arts destination for people in Indianapolis and across the country. That’s not just a worthy goal, it’s mandatory if the museum is to sustain its own vitality — and if the city is to become known as a cultural player.

It was only a matter of time before the IMA started charging an entry fee. Most other museums across the country do it; you could say it’s about time we started doing it, too.

But you can also say it’s too bad it had to be this way.

Like the expansion that is prompting it, the IMA’s coming admissions fee is a manifestation of a much larger trend that’s been sweeping the museum world for over a decade. Somewhere along the line, museums figured that if they were going to remain relevant and with it, they were going to have to compete for our attention with all the other kinds of entertainment out there. If you asked a museum director about this, he was likely to lean across his desk with a worried look in his eye and tell you his No. 1 adversary was Disney World.

This meant that museums began building bigger gift shops and better restaurants. They expanded their gallery spaces so they could host more “blockbuster” shows. Museums have become more like theme parks or shopping malls than the “temples of the human spirit” that the French revolutionary Abbé Henri Gregoire called them back in 1792.

To a certain extent, this strategy has worked. Attendance at many art museums around the country has been up in recent years. And as cities have made attracting members of the so-called “creative class” an integral part of their economic development strategies, we have seen a coast-to-coast museum building boom.

Yet museum administrators also bemoan the lack of diversity among their patrons. While museums may be important magnets for attracting the creative class, it is clear that fine art speaks to a limited, if influential, audience. In an increasingly fragmented culture — if culture is even the right word for what we have today — museums, for all their attempts to broaden their appeal, seem, ironically, to only intensify their niche status. The IMA’s expansion will make it better — for those already inclined to appreciate it.

Unfortunately, it’s impossible to imagine that sticking to a free admission policy at the IMA might change this. It hasn’t so far. But by being free the IMA has sent a message to the rest of the community, whether the community cared to pay attention or not. That message was that there was an extraordinary place on West 38th Street that was always open to everyone regardless of ability to pay. This message transcended the art hanging on the walls. It affirmed the idea that a city is defined by its gathering places — those spaces where anyone might go, where everyone could join in a shared experience.

Urban centers today are crammed with attractions but, apart from our parks, there are fewer and fewer places that are free of charge. It’s no wonder our economy is dominated by images of youthful consumption — most families of any size can’t afford a downtown adventure once the costs of food, entertainment and shopping are totaled up.

For generations, the IMA deliberately stood apart from that kind of equation. Most of us have probably never fully appreciated how principled a policy this was. And it’s impossible to say how many people might have benefited as a result. I know there were plenty of Saturday afternoons when my family did. It’s not easy finding places that are dedicated to making us feel richer, without asking for so much as a dime in return.