Are Art Museums a Public Good?

A detailed Summary of Are Art Museums a Public Good?

When you approach a museum, even from the outside you begin to enter a realm of possibilities. Most art museums enrich the senses, breech the outer thickness beneath your hard skull and start your mind on a journey that an educated society feels can only better your life experience. But is it a public good? A museum may be a public good in terms that it provides a service that enriches those that come to it, but in economic terms and by definition of our textbook, Survey of Economics by Irvin B Tucker, all museums are not a public good.

A public good, as defined by the Tucker textbook, has two qualities. One, it can not bar anyone access to that good or service and two, more than one user can use it at a time. An example of a public good, are the traffic lights that we speed under every day on our way to work or school. Everyone can use them and they will not diminish in their ability to serve the public. Although we pay taxes to pay for the light to work, people who cannot afford to pay are not blocked from using th

em. Art inside of museums where you did not have to pay to get in would be another example of a public good. Anyone can see them and watch them at the same time while not hindering another person from viewing the same piece.

Museums who charge a fee without a low-income clause hold one characteristic that turns them into a private good in that the use of their museum and art within are for the exclusive use of the people who can afford to purchase a ticket or hold connections that allow then a free pass. This problem also goes against the exclusion principle where in no one can be excluded from a public good even if they have not or cannot pay for it. Museums that do not charge a fee for admission are usually run through some kind of public funding.

A general mission statement of a museum is to collect and properly preserve, curate and conserve collections of art, provide educational exhibits and programs for the enrichment of students, children and adults of all ages, conduct scholarly research (applied and pure), employ the collections as a teac

Some common words found in the essay are:
Irvin Tucker, DeVry University, Museums Public, museums charge, charge fee, museums charge fee, art museums, people afford, public pay, mission statement, example public, museums public,

Approximate Word count = 717
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous

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Are Art Museums a Public Good?

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