Taking a page from government-supported museums in England, the Dallas Museum of Art is dispensing with its $10 general admissions charge.
Starting Jan. 21st it will be free, but, like museums in London including the Tate and the National Gallery, it plans to charge for special exhibitions.
“We're a public institution supported by the taxpayers of Dallas,'' Maxwell L. Anderson, director of the museum, told the Dallas News. “And many of those tax payers don't have the income to toss around for cultural endeavors. They've got to pay the bills, keep the kids clothed. They have serious issues. And I don't want an admission fee to be an obstacle for them.''
Mr. Anderson, who came to Dallas in January, is repeating what he did as director of the Indianapolis Museum of A rt, which he ran from 2006 through 2010. When he made admissions there free, attendance more than doubled.
