Brooking 2005 Honorable Mention: Burt Logan

2005 Brooking Paper—Honorable Mention: Burt Logan

“Rethinking Admission Fees: How a Museum Freed Itself”
By Burt Logan
Executive Director
U.S.S. Constitution Museum, Boston

From the judges: “This museum takes what many of us daydream about—what if my museum were free all the time?—and shows that dreams can work in reality. It was good to hear from a director; they don’t usually have the time to write. But we also would have liked to hear how the museum would responded if the plan to eliminate admission fees had failed.”

What board of trustees, CEO, and staff would not salivate at the prospect of hundreds of thousands of potential visitors at their museum’s doorstep? Visitors whose experience would be enriched by the museum’s exhibits and programs and whose admission fees would boost its all-important earned revenue. Despite having as many as 750,000 prospective visitors each year within easy walking distance of its front door, the USS Constitution Museum was consistently unable to attract more than roughly 10 percent of this promising audience. The museum’s ultimate solution, which boosted its attendance beyond the wildest expectations, was so counterintuitive and outlandish that at first the board was reluctant to consider it at all.

Incorporated in 1972 as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, the museum’s mission is to serve as the memory and the educational voice of USS Constitution, constructed in Boston between 1794 and 1797. Since her triumph over HMS Guerierre during the War of 1812, a victory that earned her the nickname Old Ironsides, the ship has been an object of popular affection.

Separated from the ship by a sea of asphalt, the USS Constitution Museum always has placed the highest emphasis on telling the story of Old Ironsides in creative ways that appeal to broad visitor interest. Through its exhibits and programs the museum brings the ship and her crew to life. Visitors who did enter the galleries consistently rated their experiences as outstanding and a necessary part of their tour of the ship. Unfortunately only 10 percent of Old Ironsides’ visitors took advantage of the museum’s interpretive offerings.

People entering the Boston National Historical Park were drawn immediately to the ship’s towering rig and imposing presence. But any consideration of the museum, located 200 yards away in a nondescript granite building, was clearly an afterthought. Located within the national park, the museum lacked the freedom to install sufficient signage to direct visitors from the ship. The park’s superintendent and staff were reluctant to allow the museum to “over-promote” itself at the expense of other nearby historic sites and the park itself. Museum staff were unable to distribute literature to visitors without advance approval from the Park Service. Furthermore, Constitution is subject to the same policies that govern every other Navy ship, including a prohibition against endorsing the goods and services of any private business or organization. Thus, its crew could not encourage visitors to go to the museum nor could anyone distribute promotional material aboard or near the ship.

The museum had little choice but to find other ways to attract visitors. Under the auspices of a perennial “200-yard Committee,” it installed five colorful flagpoles near the front door, placed a pushcart with items from the museum store near the ship’s gangway, and promised free coffee, among other efforts. But the visitation did not budge.

Then the museum redoubled its efforts to convert everyone who came through the front doors into a paying customer. Most people who entered left immediately when they discovered the museum charged admission. The lobby underwent a series of redesigns and makeovers in the hope visitors would find their reception so entrancing they would quickly open their wallets and buy tickets. Year after year and renovation after renovation, attendance remained constant and staff frustration remained high.

In October 1995 a change in museum management brought a new attitude and openness to the visitation quandary. The previous administration had taken a museum-centric position and had marketed the museum’s “perceived value.” We now took a different approach and analyzed the relationship between ship and museum from the typical visitor’s point of view. Unless the museum understood people’s interests and motivations, its efforts to reshape visitation would not succeed. Over a period of months, staff talked informally to visitors and observed their behavior, developing the following profile:

Having toured the “real thing,” Old Ironsides, for free, visitors simply did not consider paying to see museum exhibits a priority.
Most visitors arrived at the yard on one of the several commercial trolley lines that ferry people around Boston’s historic sites. Many were reluctant to pay the nominal admission fee—$4 for an adult and $2 for a child—and spend time in the museum, afraid that they would miss the next trolley or disrupt their sightseeing itinerary.
The tour of the ship fulfilled the intellectual, social, or patriotic need that attracted visitors in the first place. They were not inclined to pay for an enriched experience within the museum.
Explaining that the museum received no federal funding while the ship and other sites in the Navy Yard were tax-supported did not move many visitors to pay the admission fee.

Visitors made it very clear that they were unwilling to pay to enter the museum.But could the USS Constitution Museum afford to give up the nearly 15 percent of its earned income generated by admissions? That question preoccupied the board for nearly six months in early 1997.

Legally and ethically, the board was concerned about its fiduciary responsibility; would free admission jeopardize their stewardship of a public trust? Psychologically, trustees were being asked to abandon a business model that had been a mainstay of operations for 25 years. For many, eliminating a guaranteed $200,000 in visitor fees was troublesome. In addition, to offset the forfeited admission income, the museum store’s gross revenues (around $800,000 prior to 1997) and free-will visitor donations (which had never surpassed $5,000 annually) would have to increase to at least $1.3 million each year.

Still management was convinced that offering free admission was the only way to increase the museum’s visitation. In May the board warily decided to eliminate the entry fee on a trial basis from July 1 through Dec. 31, 1997. At the first sign of revenue weakness the fee would be reinstituted. An interim review by the finance and executive committees would occur no later than Aug. 31.

Within a matter of weeks visitors were entering the museum in record numbers, and store sales were setting a blistering pace. By July 1, 1998, the experiment’s first anniversary, 362,899 visitors had passed through the museum’s doors, an increase of 326 percent over the 85,134 patrons for the previous fiscal year. (Since that time, the museum’s annual visitation has never sunk below 250,000, except for a temporary drop following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.)

At the same time, gift shop income and voluntary donations grew to $1,578,634, a 62 percent increase. Visitor-derived income has continued to exceed the pre-free-admission baseline by at least 18 percent every year since 1997, even during a steep decline in overall visitation to Boston museums and attractions between 1999 and 2003. The increase in donations—from $4,000 to more than $80,000 annually—reflects the staff’s creativity and commitment to understand visitor motivation. When asked by visitors if the museum charges admission, the reception staff invites them to tour the galleries and encourages a donation. A large donation box at the entrance to the galleries and strategically placed signage in all restrooms remind visitors that the museum depends upon their generosity.

The transition from paid to free admission has been a watershed event for the museum. Among the many benefits have been:

Enabling the museum to fulfill its mission more effectively. During the past seven years, it has reached nearly 2 million visitors instead of the 600,000 projected under the fee-based system.
Enhancing existing partnerships and forging new alliances. The museum has elevated its stature within the Navy Yard. The staff of the Boston National Historical Park now permit signs announcing free admission to be placed around the yard.
Creating a new institutional culture. The success of free admission has imparted an infectious enthusiasm to trustees, staff, volunteers, members, and donors. It has expanded the vision of what is possible and allowed the museum to increase its programming in ways that would have seemed impossible 10 years ago.

The ability to move from paid to free admission hinges upon the presence of a large pool of potential visitors and is not a panacea for every institution. However, lessons gleaned from the USS Constitution Museum’s experience have broad application:

Museums must be willing to listen to their visitors and be prepared to act upon what they hear. Management and governance, despite the best of intentions, cannot divine visitor needs and motivation unless they engage their audience in dialogue.
Museums must be willing to think “outside the box.” The familiar approach, while providing a measure of comfort, may obscure a breakthrough solution.
Museums must be willing to take risks. The potential for adverse results can be minimized by carefully analyzing the situation in advance and by testing the solution before full-scale implementation, but there can be no substitute for actually trying new ideas.

Today, the USS Constitution Museum is a more vibrant and effective organization, not simply because of its shift to free admission but because it listens to visitors, thinks creatively about the future, and is willing to take calculated risks. After 25 years of serving a sliver of its potential audience, the museum has enjoyed seven years that can best be summarized as a classic “win-win” situation. Its galleries and programs are being more effectively used, its earned income has grown, and thousands upon thousands have left the Charlestown Navy Yard with a new-found appreciation of Old Ironsides and her service to the nation.