Sustainable museum?
The Exploratorium is moving. It closed its Palace of Fine Arts location on 2 January and reopens on Pier 15 next week.
Reading about the move, some numbers stood out. The museum had 570,000 visitors in 2012. Its annual budget is over $58 million. That's over $100 per visitor. With a gate price of $15-25, that's quite a subsidy.
I haven't found the full budget; I'm not sure where all of the money is going nor where it comes from. Some goes to staff: 290 full-time, 554 total. Perhaps it includes the amortized cost of renovating the pier and moving, which wasn't cheap (~$250M). Surely some comes from selling or renting exhibits to other museum, though I suspect that's a small amount. But it's a scary subsidy.
Reading about the move, some numbers stood out. The museum had 570,000 visitors in 2012. Its annual budget is over $58 million. That's over $100 per visitor. With a gate price of $15-25, that's quite a subsidy.
I haven't found the full budget; I'm not sure where all of the money is going nor where it comes from. Some goes to staff: 290 full-time, 554 total. Perhaps it includes the amortized cost of renovating the pier and moving, which wasn't cheap (~$250M). Surely some comes from selling or renting exhibits to other museum, though I suspect that's a small amount. But it's a scary subsidy.