THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 18, 1996 TAG: 9604180346
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
On May 7, the Chrysler Museum of Art will begin charging admission for the first time in its 63-year history.
The cost will be $4 for adults, and $2 for senior citizens and students. Children 5 and younger will not be charged.
On Wednesdays, admission will remain free.
Nationwide and locally, ``most museums charge admission,'' said Catherine Jordan, the museum's interim director. ``The zoo, the Botanical Garden, Nauticus - they all do it.''
Officials hope the fee will boost the museum, which has ended each fiscal year with a deficit since 1992.
During the 1993-94 fiscal year, the museum began asking for donations at the entrance.
Since then, such donations have nearly doubled - from $37,660 for 1993-1994 to $73,929 for 1994-1995, said the museum's controller, Nancy Lia.
If the 1994-95 figure consisted entirely of adults paying $4 each, that amount would represent 18,482 visitors, Lia said.
Overall, museum attendance for 1994-95 was 173,356, including school groups that paid a separate fee.
How much could the museum earn from paid admissions? If 150,000 people visited the museum in the next year, with half of them adults and the other half seniors and students, the museum would pocket an extra $450,000.
That amount would constitute more than 10 percent of its budget.
``But, we're also hoping this will encourage a lot of people to join the museum,'' Jordan said.
For the museum's 9,125 members, admission will continue to be free, she said.
Basic memberships are $25 for students and seniors, $35 for adults, $40 for couples age 60 and older, and $50 for a family.
The museum has a close relationship with the city of Norfolk, which owns its building and allocates about half of the museum's $4 million annual budget.
Jordan said that when museum and city officials discussed charging admission, city representatives said, ``We don't know why you haven't done it before.'' ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC and COLOR PHOTO
The Virginian-Pilot
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