Admission charges at the Tom Thomson Art Gallery in Owen Sound are no more.
City council was told on Monday night that the gallery has moved to a new policy of suggested donations, where people pay what they can.
According to Director and Curator Virginia Eichhorn — stats show that, where there is no set admission price, donations and sponsorships can actually account for more than what the set prices bring in.
The gallery generally collects between 9 thousand and 13 thousand dollars in admissions every year.
Eichhorn is optimistic the gallery will continue to reach those numbers.
But there’s also a humanitarian and ethical reason for the policy change. Eichhorn says she knows there are people in the community who haven’t been able to visit the gallery because they couldn’t afford to do so.
Eichhorn says she witnessed one incident where a teenaged boy was turned away at the door.
She says the boy looked sad and ashamed, and she knew immediately that episodes like that could not be allowed to happen again.
Eichhorn says the new policy will hopefully counter some attitudes in the community that art galleries are elitist.
She says the TOM is involved in many community initiatives and her goal is to continue to expand those initiatives to help broaden the gallery’s appeal to the public.
Eichhorn hopes it will also open the door to more sponsorships.
So far, the new policy seems to be working. Attendance is up and so are revenues at the gift shop.
Eichhorn says more people seem to be making the gallery a destination, even if it’s for only five minutes on the way to somewhere else.
She says that wouldn’t have happened before when there was a charge to get in.
The art gallery’s budget for 2012 is 820 thousand dollars — of which 270 thousand comes from the city. Eichhorn says it takes into account this change in policy.
