Don’t blame the MCA for new admission fee. Call out politicians who don’t value the arts

The decision by the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia to scrap free admission is a bellwether to Sydney’s arts sector still struggling post-COVID with costs that have outstripped public and private funding.

A $20 public entry to Sydney’s waterfront gallery will apply from January 31 to “secure the museum’s future” after the institution failed to win significant extra support from the Minns government. Entry will remain free for Australian students and under 18s.

Unlike other state-owned cultural institutions, the MCA is an independent not-for-profit established in 1991 by a bequest to the University of Sydney from artist John Wardell Power. The gallery receives only a fraction of public funds afforded government-owned museums despite its huge contribution to the city and state. Annual recurrent state government funding sits at $4.36 million, 14 per cent of operating costs. Corporate support last year was $4.8 million and the MCA posted a $2.559 million operating deficit.

MCA director Suzanne Cotter said the move to an entry fee stemmed from no “knight in shining armour” coming to the rescue.

Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art.Credit: Rhett Wyman

Government patronage of museums and galleries helped turn Sydney into a celebrated cultural destination. But the MCA entrance fee, the axing of creative arts programs at universities, $50,000 arts degrees and the crisis confronting live music are manifestations of changing political attitudes to creativity and curiosity.

The cacophony of voices raised over the cost of living, interest rates and housing crisis has clearly made governments deaf to the crisis confronting our cultural institutions.

The Minns government is not entirely responsible for this regrettable state of affairs; despite spending big on capital works projects, the NSW Coalition did not do enough to deal with operational funding pressures. However, now approaching two years in power, Labor has not stepped up and many galleries and museums are scrounging around for financial scraps to keep the doors open.

Ticketed entry to the MCA was axed in the brilliant moment Sydney reaped the benefits of the 2000 Olympic Games. But 12 months ago, the Herald’s arts writer Linda Morris, in a telling expose of the crisis facing institutions that have long enriched our lives, reported that the MCA was contemplating the reintroduction of an entry fee.

We thought at the time such an outcome would be a disaster for the museum, Sydney residents and the hundreds of thousands of international tourists the Circular Quay institution draws each year.

We have not changed our mind. The imposition of admission fees is usually an option of last resort for any cultural institution for fear of alienating families and to keep their collections accessible to a diverse group of art lovers. Fees also risk further reduction in commercial income from cafes and shops on which the museums increasingly rely.

An entrance fee will be patently bad for business across the board. But the MCA cannot be blamed. It has been forced into such an insidious and self-harmful step because the government’s support for Sydney’s cultural institutions is the true problem here.

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