An $800,000 gift from Baltimore County and Baltimore City will eliminate $10 admission fees at the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Walters Art Museum starting in October, a move cultural and political officials said they plan to make permanent.
In a ceremony Wednesday outside the Howard Rawlings Conservatory in Druid Hill Park, Baltimore City Mayor Martin O?Malley, Baltimore County Executive Jim Smith and museum officials said Oct. 1 will mark the first time the two museums will be free to the public in more than two decades.
The initiative will inspire economic development, boost the city?s tourism drive and spur cultural diversity, they said.
“It?s a dream come true,” said Suzanne Cohen, chairwoman of the BMA?s Board of Trustees. “I really believe everyone should and could have the ability to enjoy art, and that?s what free admission does.”
In addition to the city and county gifts ? each providing $200,000 per museum this year and for the next two years ? Anne Arundel County is chipping in $30,000 per museum this year.
Officials are still seeking private donations to sustain free admission, they said, and Harford, Howard and Carroll counties will likely help in the future.
Those counties were approached after their surplus funding for the year was already committed, said Anne Mannix, BMA spokeswoman, but some regularly donate to other museum projects.
The museums have been free for the larger part of their histories, said William Paternotte, chair of the Walter?s Board of Trustees, and have offered free hours and days in the past, which attracted larger and more diverse crowds than when admission is charged.
“It?s going to make a difference in the economic and social mix of people who come in our door,” he said.
Also in October, the city will launch its “Free Fall Baltimore” line-up of free cultural programs in the area, made possible by a $750,000 city grant.
UPCOMING EXHIBITS
At the Walters:
» Courbet and the Modern Landscape
» Untamed: The Art of Antoine-Louis Barye
» Gee?s Band: The Architecture of the Quilts
At the BMA:
» A View Toward Paris: Collecting French Art from Corot to Cassatt
» Matisse: Painter and Sculptor
» The City Real and Ideal
