Priceless art and culture

The government will encourage the nation's public cultural facilities to let in visitors free, in an experiment intended to make high culture available to a wider public.

The Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Finance announced that all the public galleries at the national and provincial levels will introduce free admission at the end of this year. No admission fees for the rest of the countries galleries will be introduced at the end of the 2012. By which time all the nation's public cultural facilities, such as museums and libraries, will be free.

Funds to keep the public cultural facilities running will come from State coffers, but the issue is sensitive because of concerns about future funding for the public cultural facilities. Free admission can be made possible only through extra funding.

However, free admission is a central part of the government's policy for public cultural facilities and will be one of its most significant achievements.

The cost of visiting a museum or gallery is beyond the means of some people. It is sad to visit our public museums, galleries and libraries and find them empty.

Access to national museums was made entirely free in Britain in 2001, after a protracted battle between the government and museum directors.

The free admission program in Britain led to a 62 percent jump in attendances in the first year, with 2.7 million new visitors.

There is great value to free public cultural facilities. They are one of the greatest educational assets we possess. It is wonderful, for instance, to see people in the National Art Museum discussing a Futuristic piece in depth, just out of interest.

Free admission encourages people to go as much as they want and wherever they feel the urge to feast on art, culture and history.

To love the arts is to want to know more about them. To enjoy them is to learn about them. A society that is growing is one that is learning.

Museums, galleries and libraries are good places to start. They help enliven the cultural lifeblood that makes our country prosper. When the country is in days of plenty, more public funds should be made available for arts and culture.

The worries that such public venues may be too crowded once admission is free are unnecessary.

When some museums introduced free admission two years ago, there were people who flocked into them for fun and even for the cool air there in the summer days. Now more people are developing the awareness that they should not interrupt visitors appreciating art works in museums.

(China Daily 02/14/2011 page8)