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The Art Institute is learning a hard lesson: you don't screw around with Ald. Ed Burke (14th). Responding to the AIC's recent decision to raise admission prices by 50 percent, Burke, along with Ald. Virginia Rugai (19th), has introduced a measure to the City Council that, according to the Tribune, "would block city fee waivers to any not-for-profit Chicago Museum that charges more than $10 for general admission," including cutting off free water. Said Burke, "They are making it almost impossible for the average Chicago citizen to take his or her family to view these Chicago treasures...At the same time they are paying to subsidize the institution, they are going to be required to pay $18 to go into the institution? That doesn't seem fair."
The Art Institute receives an annual subsidy of $6.6 million, but that falls under the authority of the Chicago Park District meaning the City Council has no real control over it, which is why Burke has chosen to threaten city services. While Burke seems to be targeting the Art Institute specifically, the measure - if approved - would also affect five other museums including the Field Museum, the Shedd Aquarium, and the Museum of Science and Industry. Added Burke, "It's one thing to charge $18 for somebody who's coming here from New Orleans or New York or San Francisco. It's something entirely different . . . to charge $18 to a taxpayer who lives in Chicago, who's already paying taxes that subsidize these institutions." [CBS 2, Tribune]
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i think it's a good idea to have reduced admission for chicago residents.
The Field Museum already has a Chicago resident discount of $1-2 dollars so the AIC should at least be gracious enough to do the same.
I'm so glad I grew up in the 80s, back then all the museums were free.
In the next episode of "Tit for Tat," watch the museums pull their free passes from the libraries...
Those things are FANTASTIC. Every time I see them the biggies (field, shedd, AIC) are gone.
But yeah, they'll threaten that to get their dough.
There should be Chicago discounts, but punishing all museums that charge over 10 bucks is a joke. And where is BUrke when taxes are increased, parking meters are privatized, etc?? Is he looking out for the "average Chicago citizen" then?
Burke should put his money where his mouth is. If he's so concerned that the treasures of the Art Institute need to be accessible at lower fees, why doesn't he propose increasing the government subsidies to run the place? In the Tribune article about this, he complains that the AIC will now cost more to visit than the Louvre. (Louvre - 9 Euros, which translates to somewhere around $12 right now.) But the Louvre gets about 70% of its operating budget from the French government. Is Burke prepared for the city to cough up 70% of the AIC budget?
Burke is Exhibit A for the "Aldermen should be neutered" movement.
Publicity-hungry snakes should not pollute the gene pool.
Ward: I could contribute to that cause.
Funny, never heard Burke moan about what I assume are relatively unimportant issues: CTA, TIF transparency, etc.
Guess bitching about the Art Institute won't madden his manager, King Daley, all that much, and Burke can pretend he actually gives a shit about people in Chicago not named Ald. Burke.
Lower prices for city residents is a fair idea and some museums already have that in place. But by focusing on admissions prices, Burke is ignoring a lot of the other free benefits museums offer. Some museums offer free admissions and programming for school groups. Some offer free professional development classes for teachers, outreach programs, public tours, and lectures. All of these things cost money.
Museums as well as other non-profits are really struggling. Between dwindling endowments and fewer donations, cultural institutions are already cutting their budgets and their staff. The institutions need money to function. Making them cut their prices lower than they currently are is just going to put these institutions in jeopardy.
$18 to get in the Art Institute is a bargain compared to how much it costs to go watch our sports teams lose.
And Burke has 24/7 police protection & a police driven city car because he supposedly was threatened around 20 years ago!
Burke is as corrupt as they get and an embarassment to Chicago. He throws out these token beans as though he represents the people in this City but he only represents his own personal gain. Where was he on the tax hikes if he cares about Chicagoans overpaying? I have a gas station in his ward and a larger chunk of land at the corner near the expressway and he has constantly held me hostage and hijacked the property looking for handouts through his henchmen and leverages that to his blocking of tenants and my use of my land. If Burke cares about Chicagoans overpaying for a museum then why does he tell me to #!$^* certain groups in his ward that make up the largest voting block for him? He doesn't care about the citizens in this City and this is just another one of his charades. He's all over the meaningless little stuff like foie gras, trans fats, and the price of museum tickets and goes way public on this type of stuff to deceive everyone into thinking he cares about the little guy, but when it comes to the stuff that counts like taxes, jacking up our meter rates, outsourcing city jobs to his buddy's companies at 10x the price, hired trucking scandal with Pete Andrews, quietly erasing the record of his votes from the minutes, doctoring paperwork, and throwing all of us over the chair so he can fill his personal coffers, he claims ignorance. If anyone isn't insulted by Burke's transparent effort at publicity stunts like threatening the Art Institute here, then I feel sorry for you because you are one of the sheep that just doesn't get how bad he has wrecked this City. He is the biggest problem, not Daley, as Burke controls the spending as the Chair of the Finance Committee. He also has bigger coffers than Daley. How can that be unless he is even more corrupt?
I was happy to see Obama take a poke at Burke's wife last night on Leno. No one should ever believe anything that comes out of Burke's corrupt and deceitful mouth. A chronic liar.