“Free admission does not of itself mean people think museums and galleries are places for them to visit,” according to ‘Free to see – but what’s next?’, a new research report by independent art charity The Art Fund. The research was produced in collaboration with The Work Foundation through a series of ‘Citizens’ Workshops’, to explore what has happened since the national museums started to offer free admission eight years ago, and to assess the value the British public places on the national art collection. Free admission was highly valued, and “important in making public ownership of the nation’s art real in people’s minds”. Even those who are not regular attenders felt that it was valuable to society as a whole. The report is clear that a range of social and educational barriers need to be tackled to make the collections accessible to all: lack of knowledge about the art on display and a feeling of intimidation about the buildings themselves made people feel that they were not qualified to appreciate the art owned by the nation. According to recent Government figures, visits to national museums and galleries are at a record high for the third year running. Forty million visits were recorded last year, and since free admission was introduced, visits to previously charging museums have more than doubled, from 7 million in 2001 to 16 million last year.
