fajrdrako: (Default)
[personal profile] fajrdrako

I got bad news from the National Gallery of Canada today.

For years now, you have to pay for any of the special exhibits - usually a hefty price, not to mention standing in line for some time to get into them. But the main permanent collection was always free. I used to drop in at lunchtime sometimes, just to relax, think, enjoy the ambience, and look at my favourite pieces of art. Sometimes I'd just go there to read. It's a lovely place.

Well now you have to pay to go into any part of the gallery, except for a couple of free hours on Thursday night.

Faugh. I think I'll write to my MP, and maybe the newspaper. This is to my mind just another move which brings the arts further away from the public and puts them more and more in the exlusive hands of the well-off adn the wealthy, who already have many ways of beautifying their world. It's elitism. Our taxes already suppoert the gallery: that isn't going to stop. I know there is no free lunch, but now there is no free art, either.

I disapprove, and I'm disappointed that going to the gallery is going to be more difficult than it used to be.

Date: 2004-10-05 06:00 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] monsieureden.livejournal.com
If you're taxes support the gallery, I don't know why they are charging. Usually when a gallery/museum goes to these measures it means they aren't being state/province/federal funded well enough and hence, have to charge fees in order to stay open to the public, not to mention financially support their staff.

Having worked in many places of public concern (museums, galleries, libraries) it ain't easy to gage. I used to hear people bitch all the time at the art gallery cause we asked for a dollar donation (mind you, asked not demanded). If it wasn't for a school grant, the gallery wouldn't exist.

Date: 2004-10-05 06:01 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] monsieureden.livejournal.com
Argh, I meant to write 'your', not 'you're.' *English major anality*

Date: 2004-10-05 06:28 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fajrdrako.livejournal.com
If your taxes support the gallery, I don't know why they are charging.

Greed? I know it's expensive to run a gallery, even a National one, but I think that to charge the public entry fees is contrary to its purpose.

I wouldn't mind if they asked for a donation on entrance - heck, I would probably pay it. That wouldn't offend me nearly as much.

Date: 2004-10-05 06:31 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fajrdrako.livejournal.com
I knew what you meant to write. My brain edited it for you. It's the job of a typo to fail to be noticed until too late.... Typos are the enemy and it's an everlasting war!

Date: 2004-10-05 06:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] iibnf.livejournal.com
Fuck them - that's why I make my own damned art.

Date: 2004-10-05 06:40 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fajrdrako.livejournal.com
That's the spirit. That's the way to handle it. They don't have enough slash art there, either. But they do have some nice naked men from various cultures.

Date: 2004-10-05 06:44 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] iibnf.livejournal.com
I just painted five canvases in burnt umber. Not sure what it's gonna be yet, but I'll charge you a dollar to see them, if you like.

Date: 2004-10-05 07:11 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fajrdrako.livejournal.com
Oooh, greed, corruption and capitalism! Begone, forces of artistic evil!

Date: 2004-10-05 08:11 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dargit.livejournal.com
You'd have also meant "gauge" not "gage" then. :-)

Date: 2004-10-05 08:13 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dargit.livejournal.com
It has been this way for a few years now. All the museums have been (on and off anyway) charging, except on Thursdays. I can remember having to pay to get into the Museum of civ. for example.

Date: 2004-10-05 08:14 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dargit.livejournal.com
I tend to notice typos. It's just the way my brain works. So if you need something read over I'm the one you should call. ;-)

Date: 2004-10-06 12:44 am (UTC)
ext_15621: The Pixel in a paper bag (Default)
From: [identity profile] rosiespark.livejournal.com
Hee, another compulsive proofreader! I bet you also read the cereal box at breakfast... *g*

May I ask why exactly your icon pic is? I keep vacillating between some sort of naval fitting, thumbscrews, or a sailor's pigtail with a large bow at the end. Which probably says more about the contents of my mind that it does about your icon. ;)

Date: 2004-10-06 01:29 am (UTC)
kathyh: (Default)
From: [personal profile] kathyh
That's sad. Maybe it won't be permanent. Some museums and art galleries here (the UK) started charging for a while but others (the National Gallery and the British Museum) bravely held out despite financial problems, and now most are free again with visitor numbers way up. Exhibitions are pricey though!

Date: 2004-10-06 09:45 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] monsieureden.livejournal.com
Yes, I think the donation idea is the smarter idea. That's how Detroit's Institute sets it up, and they desperately need money.

I couldn't imagine having to pay to enter a national gallery. Imagine how much I would've missed in Edinburgh if I had had to pay.

Date: 2004-10-06 09:46 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] monsieureden.livejournal.com
They are! lol. Thanks for editing me. ;)

Date: 2004-10-06 09:47 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] monsieureden.livejournal.com
Yeeeeeeesssssssss.

Date: 2004-10-06 12:14 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] katkim.livejournal.com
I was about to say the same thing as [livejournal.com profile] kathyh, I remember when the Natural History Museum started charging and attendance fell way down. So much so that they repealed their decision to charge and allow free entrance again. Still, special exhibitions are very expensive, most are around £8-10. I understand that they have to fund themselves some way, but...meh. Art should be seen by anyone who wants to appreciate it.

Date: 2004-10-06 03:17 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fajrdrako.livejournal.com
Good for the Detroit Institute!

I think paying for a *national* gallery is contrary to the purpose of a national gallery. Hah! A betrayal by the government - and not for the first time!

Date: 2004-10-06 03:20 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fajrdrako.livejournal.com
So do I, which is why I so seldom go there. I don't like paying to go there, either!

Date: 2004-10-06 03:22 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fajrdrako.livejournal.com
Wonderful icon!

The possibility that it won't be permanent inspires me all the more to write to the Powers that Be, whoever they are.

I don't really mind special exhibitions being expensive, since they incur special costs. And they're usually worth it, or you can simply choose not to see them - and still see the art in the gallery.

But the art in the National Gallery theoretically belongs to the Canadian people, does it not? So shouldn't they be able to look at it?

I miss the British Museum. It's one of my favourite places.

Date: 2004-10-06 03:23 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fajrdrako.livejournal.com
Maybe they'll repeal the charge... that would be great. I can hope.

Meanwhile I find it pretty depressing - not just the greed of it, but the economic difficulties everywhere around me.

Date: 2004-10-06 08:10 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] monsieureden.livejournal.com
So... even in Canada governments betray! I thought that was an uniquely American thing, heh. *kidding*

Date: 2004-10-06 09:46 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dargit.livejournal.com
Not quite that bad. But I do notice those typos. I also notice the the kind of typos as well. NO idea why.

I've been too lazy to fix my icons. I really must get around to it. That icon is a Viking Hammer. I have an amateur interest in linguistics and some of that interest has led to looking at what parts of English derive from old Norse etc. ;-) It's quite interesting. I'll friend you so you can look. I had to go private finally.

Date: 2004-10-07 04:47 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fajrdrako.livejournal.com
Uniquely American - sadly, no. If government betrayal were isolated to only one country, we'd be able to avoid it! As it is.... I don't think there are too many places you can go to get away from it.... some uninhabited island, maybe.

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