Eat My Ass, Franklin Institute....

So, I have today off from work. I was going to to to Philadelphia to see the Tutankhamun exhibit at the Franklin Institute. I was, that is, until I went online to check on tickets. The price of admission for the Franklin Institute is $13.75....Tickets for the Tutankhamun exhibit are $27.50. For you non-math Majors.....that's $41.25....for one person.

I just wanted to SEE the exhibit....I didn't want to OWN the exhibit.

That got me thinking...it is not doing a disservice to the public to charge high admission for cultural exhibits?

Now, I'm a pretty big sports fan...but I find it absurd that in the same city...I can see the Phillies for $15...but it'll cost me $41.25 to see an exhibit of cultural & scientifc significance.

I agree. But sometimes museums have to pay alot of money to buy these exhibits from the owners, which means the only way they can not make a loss on these things is to charge extortionate prices. But yeah, its annoying and I can't see why they don't create a fairer system.

Although you should come to England, the art galleries and museums in London are free (they're state-funded and charitably funded, and they hold occassional private events to raise their cash).

Are you sure that you have to pay both admissions? Out here any special exhibit pricing (almost, I can't name any that I've gone to that didn't) includes regular museum pricing. Can you call someone and find out for sure?

Although $41.25 probably wouldn't stop me from going, but I'm a museum whore.

the king tut exhibit sucks, skip it.

It's a ripoff.

I taped the entire exhibit:



Lame.

I went on the website and it clearly stated that the admission to the Franklin Institute itself was not covered in the price of the Tutankhamen exhibit.

It's $15 because the Phillies suck.

Hey, the Phillies work very hard to make playing .500 ball look pathetic.

I grew up outside Philadelphia and the FI was always very fairly priced. I never knew them to charge two prices, either.

Although,. any of my trips there, looking back, would have been worth 40+ dollars.

And I never got to see Tut, so . . .

Yeah, I'd pay it, but make sure you have to pay both prices.

And yeah, Phillies games are cheap because they're the Phillies.

I saw the exhibit at the Field Museum in Chicago last year (ironically killing time before a Phillies game at Wrigley). It's a neat and very detailed exhibit, but there's no Tutankhamun sarcophagus. My father and I were kind of taken aback that of all the things to not have in a Tutankhamun exhibit, the headpiece would be the thing.

Instead, you get to see a hologram of it.

For $41.25 that mummy better be giving handjobs in the men's room.

Blame the people who cut government funding for cultural institutions.

Pft, like the Cairo Museum would let dirty Americans look upon the mask of Tutankhamon.

Stupid Smart People who deserve satis for their far-harder work about historical artifacts. Damn them and their greater need for money! Damn them and their smaller salaries!

How much is a ticket to Disneyland these days? Hell, even a plain old movie runs about $10 in Philly and only lasts two hours.

The question really is: how much did the FI have to pay to get the Tut exhibit, and how many people can they reasonably run through it every day? If they are paying 20 bucks a head then 41 bucks for a ticket is pretty fair. I do see where you're coming from as I'm not spending 41 bucks to go see it, but I know several people who have and they liked it a lot, apparently not bothered by the price much.

It was in New York before like 20-30 years ago.

Oops! My mistake. Edited.

yeah, philly sucks. whaddya gonna do?

But I used to pay $5 as a non-member to get into FI, and the heart didn't even have a bunch of jigsaw marks in it yet.

The other question being, what is the quality of the presentation? The layout, title cards, etc of most of the Bodyworlds exhibition looked like a high school science fair, but cost over $10 less than the Tut tickets.

Hey lady, don't talk like that. The Phils are going to the post season this year.

HAHAHAHA.

do you hear yourself? you dont say theyre going to win, you say theyre going to the 'post season'

Hey, I'm trying to be realistic about a team at .500 before the break.

But now that you've called me on it, I guess I should get in early on booing Burrell for the rest of the season.

there you go!

It's usually a huge rip-off to pay the full price admission to a museum, gallery, zoo, etc. I suggest one of two things:

1. Buy a membership. By becoming a member you usually get a year's free admission, at least for yourself and often for a guest as well. Also, they're often tied to free admssion at participating institutions, so for the price of one membership you can enjoy free admission to a dozen or more places. Prices vary from $45 to $100 or more.

2. Buy a CityPass or similar. This works best for tourists, but it's always a much better deal. For example, a $50 CityPass for San Francisco gets you in at a bunch of museums, galleries, ferry rides, and acts as a transit pass for 10 consecutive days. Even if you live in town, take a week out to visit everything for one low price.

Now obviously this doesn't help your situation, as I'm suggesting you spend more money.

And to answer your question, usually the places that charge a lot of money do so for a reason. For example, the NY Metropolitan Museum of Art only asks for a donation because that place is swimming in money. Other places aren't as lucky and need to milk their patrons for all they can; which is why a membership is often the best deal, for you and them.