Musings on the cost of Museums

One of the themes that often comes up in books about people "making" it, getting to college despite expectations, or getting into a better college etc, is that there was a value placed on education by the family.

As part of that education, another thing that comes up is how parents exposed the kids to museums, the idea being that they were given a vision of something that is beyond most of what is everyday to 99.99% of us.

Yup, unless you are lucky enough to live near DC, the odds are pretty good that the museum collection will emphasize dead white men, but while deplorable, so does culture in general, so it sadly fits snugly with the dominant culture.

Now, in 2020, I wonder how well that idea of exposing kids to "culture" via museums is surviving. Not just because of the internet, or because of a reluctance to embrace dead-white-man-culture, but because of the cost of museums.

I'm always shocked at how much it costs to take kids to the museum, the zoo, the aquarium. When tickets for the Seattle Aquarium are $25 for kids, $30 for state-resident adults, and the Pop Culture Museum is more than that, fitting museums into a budget seems to be more and more difficult.

Was it truly always the expensive, relative to a middle class budget? I somehow don't think so.

Yes, I know there are "free days" and discounted tickets... but those, as always, assume that people can go during that time, which is often picked to be inconvenient to most people.

National Parks, once a total bargain, are more expensive, relatively, as well. I personally think peoples should pay less, but that tour buses should be charged a lot more than they are now.

I dunno. My niece, sister, and mom are in town this weekend, and we're going to go to an exhibit at the Allen Library at UW (and of course, we'll pop into the Suzzallo Library!), and I was wondering what else my niece, especially, might be interested in. I checked out the cost to visit the Museum of Pop Culture (formerly the EMP), and noted again how expensive it is. Also that there is a Minecraft Exhibit, that Linnea now wants to go to, and I'll have to see what kind of benefit dh's employer gives for that, because $36/person, gulp. Anyhow.

At least libraries are still free.

"For now" is of course my dark follow-up thought.