Free time

ENJOYING ANCIENT ARTS: A visitor appreciates Chinese traditional folding fans at the China Fan Museum in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province, on September 29, 2009 (LI ZHONG)

"Museums are a great feature of the development of human civilization," said Song. "At any time of period, museums play an important role in enriching the cultural life of local residents."

As a type of non-profit institution, museums should be open to the public for free, he said.

Free entry into museums in China started in 2008, and by the end of 2009, a total of 1,447 national and provincial museums and memorials had become free of charge, accounting for 77 percent of the total number, according to statistics provided by the SACH.

For special exhibitions, museums and memorial halls can charge fees, but museums are encouraged to have cheap tickets and flexible plans, such as regular free entry, and cheap tickets for groups and families.

On March 28, 2008, 33 of Beijing's most popular state-owned museums, including the Capital Museum, the Museum of Natural History and the Chinese People's Anti-Japanese War Memorial Hall, became the first group of museums in the country to stop charging entrance fees.

"The elimination of the entry fee is a big step forward. It provides opportunities for Chinese museums to better exploit their educational functions," Song said.

He said that the museums used to charge fees, which discouraged many people, especially those with low incomes, from entering.

Thanks to the free admission policy, Chinese museums had attracted more than 820 million visitors over the past two years, the SACH statistics said.

The average number of visitors for a museum in the past two years was up by 50 percent compared to that of the time when people had to buy tickets for visits, Song said.

"The museums are currently witnessing a steady flow of visitors after experiencing a sharp hike of visitors shortly after the introduction of the policy," he said, adding that the number of visitors to major museums averaged about 3,000 a day, while the figure for a medium-sized and small museum was 600 and 200, respectively.

Adoption of the free admission policy would also drive museums to improve their services, said Cai Qin, a researcher with the Zhejiang Provincial Museum.

"The museums are not only collection centers any more. They are also cultural centers, education centers and entertainment centers. Their public values will be fully displayed," Cai said.

Financial constraint

In order to encourage more museums to offer free admission, the operating expenses of all national museums and memorial halls will be covered by the central budget, while museums at the provincial level would be jointly supported by the central and local budgets, Vice Minister of Finance Zhang Shaochun said.

According to Zhang, the amount of subsidies for museums at the provincial level would vary by location. Those in eastern provinces, where local economies were stronger, would receive 20-percent subsidies, with 60-percent funding for those in central provinces and 80 percent for the western provinces.

"The free entry of museums and memorial halls must be guaranteed and should in no way be hampered by fund shortages," he said.

Local funding should cover improvements in museum facilities or the costs of special exhibitions.

Meanwhile, the Central Government revenues could help national museums, whether in Beijing or other provinces, increase their collections, adopt new display technologies and enhance communication, said Zhang.

However, funding support from the government could not prevent or solve all problems facing many museums.

Kong Fanzhi, Director of the Beijing Municipal Administration of Cultural Heritage, said that the implementation of free admission provided opportunities for museums to integrate into society, but the uncertain factors caused by surging visitors and the contradiction between visitors' high expectations and low service levels of museums would be serious challenges to museums.

On October 31, 2008, curators from more than 20 provincial museums called for more financial support to cope with the huge increase in visitor numbers. They spoke of their problems with increasing security pressure after the government decided to allow visitors to enter museums for free.

"After the free admission policy took effect, visitor numbers soared from several hundred a day to more than 10,000 at peak time," said Lin Dan, spokeswoman of the Fujian Provincial Museum.

"The museum had to control visitor numbers by issuing just 3,000 tickets a day. There were not enough tickets, but that's the only choice for us," she added.

To impose an upper limit on visitor numbers, museums also used other methods including reservations online or by phone and regular exhibit sharing and exchanges, she said.

Besides, the influx of more visitors has placed greater pressure on management, as protection is needed for museum exhibits.

Although the Central Government has promised to cover losses from free admission, the museums will still have to face financial difficulties in the increased costs of water, electricity, security, publicity and facility maintenance, with the swelling number of visitors, Lin said.

Wang Hongqing, Director of the Hubei Provincial Museum in central China, said that free admission would continue despite worries about the museum's ability to protect its rich collection of artifacts.

"After all, the museum's collection is for the public to appreciate, so the more visitors the better. Free admission is a challenge for our service ability," he said.

Chen Xiejun, Curator of the Shanghai Museum, holds that offering free entry is just the beginning of a move that aims to fully realize the value of cultural institutions in China. "After that, it's the responsibility of the institutions themselves to come out with better shows and better service to truly benefit visitors," he said.

According to him, the Shanghai Museum is now providing more electronic interpreters for visitors and welcoming volunteers to provide free on-the-spot explanation, as a supplement for the free entry,

The museum was also actively contacting foreign counterparts, hoping to bring more high-quality exhibits to local lovers of culture, Chen said.

International Museum Day

International Museum Day has been celebrated around the world since 1977. Each year, a theme is decided by the Advisory Committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM). The event provides the opportunity for museum professionals to meet the public and alert them to the challenges that museums face.

It has been recommended that this celebration be held each year on May 18, given that each country has its own specific traditions and conditions, in the spirit of the motto: "museums are an important means of cultural exchange, enrichment of cultures and development of mutual understanding, cooperation and peace among peoples."

(Source: icom.museum)