Artnet News | Brian Boucher

Rowdy online debates and a thousand editorials have bloomed from the recent announcement that New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art will begin to charge mandatory admission for out-of-state visitors, upending its longstanding “pay what you wish” policy. The museum’s president, Daniel H. Weiss, says the change is necessary to bolster declining public support and admissions revenue. The institution expects that it will see between $6 and $11 million a year in additional income.

Now, San Francisco art lover Aarti Kelapure is calling on the museum to remain free for all. At publication time, her online petition is closing in fast on its goal of 10,000 signatures, just one day after it was launched. As of this writing, it was gaining several dozen signatures every few minutes.

The petition is hosted by Care2, a site for which Kelapure also works as senior editor of “Causes.”… read more 

Image | G. Scott Segler, via Wikimedia Commons.