Nowadays, some museums are charging fees, while others remains free. Personally, I am convinced that the possible benefits of this tendency is far outweighed by the potential drawbacks.
The obvious advantage of requiring extra payment for visiting museums is the decrease of financial burden of those institutions. In other words, by charging fees, museums and art galleries provide themselves with necessary financial assets, helping them to function further. However, considering that financial asset can be accessed from other sources, such as government foundation, the concern should not be seen as a major advantage.
Compared to the above discussed advantage, there seems to be more drawbacks of charging fees from customers. Firstly, in the modern world, where the interest to certain entertaining and educating activities has decreased as a result of sedentary lifestyle, rise of social media and other factors, this tendency can lead to people, being less interested in visiting such places. That is to say, trying to increase the benefit from art galleries or museums by charging fees may have a reversed effect, with less people, willing to engaged in such activities. For example, in many European cities most of the museums were free for a decades. However, later update in pricing policy of central european countries has discouraged dwellers of those states from regular visits to museums, resulting in total number of visitors, being less than that of before the policy was set. In addition, this tendency can lead to people, being less aware of their cultural heritage, which can negatively affect the public awareness. To put it differently, as the accessibility of museums and art galleries deccreases by the required charges, less people can possess valuable insights into the past and current customs and traditions of their nation, along with considerations of art throughout the history.
In conclusion, I strongly believe that despite the benefits of extra payment for visiting museums and art galleries, the current trend seems to be mostly disadvantageous.