Parking costs rise at Getty

The cost of visiting cultural institutions is rising -- even at the Getty Center, the hilltop Brentwood complex run by the ultra-rich J. Paul Getty Trust. Admission to the museum, special exhibitions and other programs is free, but the price of parking has jumped from $5 to $7.

The primary reason for the rate hike is that the Getty rents off-site parking lots for overflow crowds and those costs have gone up, says Pamela Johnson, the trust’s vice president of communications and corporate relations. Pointing out that this is the first fee increase since the Getty Center opened in December 1997, she says that Getty officials hope the higher fee will encourage carpooling so that more people can be accommodated in the on-site structure.

Meanwhile in New York, the Museum of Modern Art’s decision to boost its admission fee from $12 to $20 -- with the opening of its $425-million renovation and expansion -- has raised not only eyebrows but a considerable hue and cry. One of the most public complaints comes from Dan Levenson, an artist who lives in Brooklyn.

On a sleepless Sunday night a few weeks ago, Levenson designed a website, freemoma.org, charging that the 67% escalation “reflects a larger cultural trend whereby institutions deny any social responsibility or progressive ideals in favor of the ruthless pursuit of the bottom line.”

It’s a “dangerous precedent,” Levenson states on the site. “While mass media entertainment is increasingly doled out by a handful of powerful corporations, the cultural treasures owned by wealthy museums will be walled off from people who need access. Great works of art can be bought and sold, but they belong to everyone.”