{"id":499997,"date":"2026-02-26T04:04:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T04:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/499997\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T04:04:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T04:04:14","slug":"the-wealthy-should-pay-for-museums-to-keep-them-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/499997\/","title":{"rendered":"the wealthy should pay for museums to keep them free"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wealthy people should automatically take out museum memberships and make voluntary donations to keep them free for the wider public, Dame Tracey Emin has said.<\/p>\n

The artist and trustee of the British Museum said that \u201csomeone like me\u201d should join every membership scheme at museums they visit and automatically \u201ctap and make a donation\u201d.<\/p>\n

Emin, who was speaking at the opening of a retrospective of her career at Tate Modern<\/a>, said that most British people did not realise how \u201clucky\u201d they were to have the culture on offer across the country.<\/p>\n

\"Artist<\/p>\n

Emin with The End of Love, one of her paintings, at Tate Modern<\/p>\n

TOLGA AKMEN\/EPA<\/p>\n

She added that a greater contribution from those who could afford it would make a \u201chell of a difference\u201d.<\/p>\n

Emin, 62, said: \u201cI think if people were made to realise what amazing art and museums [there are] then they would be happy to pay something.\u201d<\/p>\n

There has been discussion in Britain about whether state-funded institutions such as the Victoria & Albert, Tate\u2019s galleries and the National Gallery should start charging foreign visitors for entry and even whether free entry, introduced in 2001, should be abandoned entirely. <\/p>\n

Many institutions are in dire financial straits. The Tate is operating with a deficit budget and the National Gallery revealed this month that it has an \u00a38.2 million deficit.<\/p>\n

Most of the world\u2019s great cultural institutions \u2014 such as the Louvre in Paris, the Prado in Madrid and the Vatican Museums \u2014 do charge an entry fee while still receiving state support.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Tracey Emin: \u2018I can hardly see colours. I\u2019ve got cataracts\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Emin said it was important that Britain\u2019s museums remain free. She recalled how \u2014 coming from a working-class background in Margate, Kent, and having left school at 13 \u2014 she had needed to \u201cfind her own way\u201d to art museums. She added that when she first arrived at the Tate, which has never charged for entry to its main collections, she was \u201creally lucky that it was free\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe longer it stays free the better it is for everybody,\u201d she said on Wednesday in an interview at Tate Modern, where her exhibition, Tracey Emin: A Second Life, will run until the end of August.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I would also say if you are someone like me [one of the country\u2019s most successful and wealthiest artists] you should join the membership for every museum you go to, or you should tap and make a donation every time you go there and that would make a hell of a difference,\u201d Emin added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe longer we don\u2019t have to pay the better but people in responsible positions should start getting memberships not just for one museum but for every one that they visit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emin also spoke about her frustrations at trying to bring the British Museum \u201cinto the 21st century\u201d and away from its \u201cterrible colonial past\u201d.<\/p>\n

The artist, who was appointed a trustee in November 2023, said that while she thought it was a \u201cfantastic museum in a lot of ways\u201d it also had to move \u201cfast\u201d into the 21st century.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope it changes. Nick Cullinan, the new director<\/a>, he\u2019s pushing it, there are a number of new trustees and our aim is to actually get it into gear and into the 21st century. But it\u2019s hard. It\u2019s a battle with certain things and certain issues which I\u2019m not allowed to talk about. I think it is a fantastic museum in lots of ways but it\u2019s got this terrible colonial past.\u201d<\/p>\n

The museum has for some years been grappling with its possession of many artefacts, such as the Benin Bronzes, that were \u201cstolen\u201d during the colonial period and which are subject to restitution requests. <\/p>\n

\u2022 British Museum sends artefacts abroad to help countries \u2018decolonise\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Its chairman, George Osborne<\/a>, has not managed to reach a deal with Greece over the Parthenon Marbles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Tracey<\/p>\n

Emin\u2019s career retrospective will run until August 31<\/p>\n

ELLIOTT FRANKS<\/p>\n

It has also been criticised by activists and directors of other museums for accepting a multimillion-pound donation from BP at a time when the vast majority of cultural institutions have rejected financial support from fossil fuel companies.<\/p>\n

Emin said, however, that \u201cyou can\u2019t just give things back \u2026 it doesn\u2019t work like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a level of responsibility for every museum to look after the works and if you just give something back you don\u2019t know that it is going to be looked after. It is much more complex. I wish it was easier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emin also made a plea for people to be more supportive of the institution, which remains one of the world\u2019s most renowned and important museums.<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than everybody slagging it off and trying to get it closed down, why don\u2019t we just try to make it a better place,\u201d she said. \u201cMake it more ethical, make it stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wealthy people should automatically take out museum memberships and make voluntary donations to keep them free for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":["post-499997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}