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Sadiq Khan defends free museum admission with a number that’s hard to argue: London visits to formerly paid institutions rose about 151% in the decade after the charges came off (LBC). Access as a core strategy.
The same logic surfaces twice more today. San Diego is launching an arts pass covering 40-plus organizations across the county and metro Tijuana (The San Diego Union-Tribune). And bands watching the average top-tour ticket climb from $84 to $130 in a decade have started offering their own $20 seats (The Wall Street Journal).
The return on that isn’t only attendance. The Smithsonian is absorbing a sustained White House pressure campaign, but the public’s love of the museums is holding it up — including among people otherwise receptive to the attack. This runs straight through free entry (The Atlantic).
Which makes Justin Davidson’s verdict on building hyperflexible theatres sting. Moving walls, precision lifts, rooms that expand on command — and the revolution arrives as anticlimactic and overpriced (Curbed).
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