Beginning Friday, July 1, the Metropolitan Museum of Art will raise general admission prices by $5 for all visitors. New York state residents, along with tri-state students, will still retain the option to pay as they wish but for all other visitors, tickets will soon cost $30 for adults, $22 for seniors, and $17 for students, making the Met one of the most expensive museums in the city. A Met representative confirmed the fee increase in an email to Hyperallergic.
For decades, the Met upheld a “pay-as-you-wish” policy for all visitors, with suggested prices for adult tickets increasing from $20 to $25 in 2011. But that changed in 2018, when the museum limited the beneficiaries of that policy to in-state residents and tri-state (New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut) students, citing rising operational demands and inadequate admissions revenue. The cost for admission for out-of-state visitors became $25 for adults, $17 for seniors, and $12 for students. (Admission for children under 12 remains free.)
The new fee hike comes as inflation soars in New York City and nationwide. In May, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the annual inflation rate was 8.6%, the highest it’s been since 1981. The Met also saw a steep decline in visitors in 2021 during the pandemic, and a dramatic decrease in ticket revenue with fewer out-of-state travelers visiting the museum due to COVID-19.
The New Museum indicated it had no plans to raise admission fees. The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Guggenheim Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art have not yet responded to Hyperallergic’s inquiry.
