Admission to an art museum in the US might set you back $15 or $25 or nothing at all, depending on where and who you are. But a new study that sets out to measure the societal value of museums in monetary terms estimates that a single visit will pay dividends many times over in benefits to your well-being, equivalent to more than $900 per adult visitor.
Eleven medium to large US art museums participated in the study, conducted by the Oregon-based Institute for Learning Innovation, including the Barnes Foundation; Cleveland Museum of Art; Denver Art Museum; Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Milwaukee Art Museum; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art; New Orleans Museum of Art; Oakland Museum of California; Saint Louis Art Museum and Walters Art Museum. The findings were presented at the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) annual conference in Denver last month.
