Minneapolis art museums look like bargains complared to New York where the Metropolitan Museum of Art recently raised its "recommended" admission fee to $25, up from $20.
Locally, Walker Art Center is the top ticket with an entry charge of $10 for adults. The Museum of Russian Art is next at $7. But the best deal of all is the Minneapolis Institute of Arts where all that classy culture is, get this, free.
Since January the Met has laid off 14 percent of its staff ( about 74 people) in an effort to alleviate an $8.4 million operating budget in the fiscal year ending June 30. Officials blamed their financial woes on a really big drop in income from the museum's endowment which has plunged in value from $2.51 billion in 2008 to $1.86 billion in fiscal 2009.
Yes, that is "b" as in "billion."
