In this day and age, some museums and art galleries require visitors to pay entry fee while some are not. In my opinion, I believe that the upside of this tendency does overshadow its downside and the reasons will be elucidated in the following paragraphs.
On the one hand, these places often attracte visitors because they are free, almost not because of their beauty and uniqueness. Therefore, if they have to pay a certain price to visit these areas, they will think it is a waste of money and do not want to visit these places. As a result, these museums and art galleries can only earn money from people who are truly interested in arts, leading to a lack of income and revenue.
On the other hand, asking people to pay for entry fee is necesary and acceptable for some specific reasons. These places showcase a lot of artworks, many of them are sensitive and can be degraded easily due to unsuitable temperature and surrounding conditions. Thus, entry fees are partly allocated in maintaining and preserving these works. By contrast, a lack of money are proportionate to a lack of works being exhibited or the degradation of qualities. Moreover, the revenue of these museums and galleries are paid for staff’s salaries, operational price and rental bill. If there are not enough money allocated in these aspects, these places cannot run properly and even be closed down.
All in all, my firm conviction is that charging galleries or museums entrance fee is much more advantageous for these sites in general. When it comes to the disadvantage, it can probably be solved by discounting the costs for visitors and using national subsidies to partly pay for the operation fee.