Museums to Raise Admission Fees

Enjoying Harvard's art collections will soon be a bit more expensive--unless you're enrolled with the Registrar.

Beginning January 8, University Art Museums will raise admission fees to $5 for adults and $3 for non-Harvard students. Admission will remain free for Harvard students.

"It was time," said Cynthia A. Friedmann, a public relations officer.

Museum rates have not changed since July 1, 1989, when directors raised fees to $4 for adults and $2.50 for students.

Friedmann noted that such modest rate increases are an attempt to "be competitive with other museums" as well as to "offset museum costs."

Directors of the art museums decided to hold off rate increases until the museum's most popular collection, the Maurice-Wertheim collection, returned to Harvard from a national tour, Friedmann said.

"We wanted visitors to feel...they're getting their money's worth," Friedmann said.

About 80,000 visitors came to the museums last year, generating $160,000 in revenue. In comparison, the Boston Museum of Arts had 801,647 visitors and charges $7 for admission. The Isabelle Stuart Gardner Museum, another famous museum located in Boston, charges $6 for admission. Friedmann said she doesn't expect the rate increase to affect the number of visitors.

The three art museums--the Fogg, Sackler, and Busch-Reisinger--will continue to be free for children under 18 and for the general public on Saturday between 10 a.m. and noon.