Editing Metropolitan Museum of Art (section)

=== Attendance ===
For the fiscal year 2017 which ended on June 30, the museum was reported as having 7&nbsp;million visitors during the past year, where "37 percent of these were international visitors, while 30 percent came from New York's five boroughs."<ref>(July 12, 2017), "[https://news.artnet.com/art-world/art-industry-news-july-12-1020134 Art Industry News: The Met Museum Boasts Record Attendance Numbers + More Must-Read Stories]", ''ArtNet News''. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180112214754/https://news.artnet.com/art-world/art-industry-news-july-12-1020134 |date=January 12, 2018 }}.</ref> Previously in 2016, the museum set a record for attendance, attracting 6.7&nbsp;million visitors—the highest number since the museum began tracking admissions.<ref name="nytimes.com">{{cite news | last=Pogrebin | first= Robin | title=The Metropolitan Museum of Art Announces Record Attendance | website=The New York Times | date=August 5, 2016 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/05/arts/design/the-metropolitan-museum-of-art-announces-record-attendance.html |url-access=subscription | access-date=January 12, 2018 | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180112215040/https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/05/arts/design/the-metropolitan-museum-of-art-announces-record-attendance.html | archive-date=January 12, 2018 }}</ref> Forty percent of the Met's visitors in fiscal year 2016 came from New York City and the tristate area; 41 percent from 190 countries besides the United States.<ref name="nytimes.com"/> In 2017, the attendance figures indicated seven million annual visitors with 63% of the visitors arriving from outside of New York State.<ref name="nyt20170426" />

[[Roberta Smith]] writing for ''The New York Times'' in September 2017 voiced growing public concern that proposed increases in admissions costs would have an adverse effect upon attendance statistics at the museum. Smith referred to the public perception that such costs would appear "greedy and inappropriate" because "The museum already gets around $39 million a year from its gate—equal to the entire annual budget of the [[Brooklyn Museum]]."<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/04/arts/design/director-metropolitan-museum-search-daniel-weiss.html |url-access=subscription |title=The Fall's Most Fascinating Art Show? The Met Trying to Fix Itself |newspaper=The New York Times |date=September 4, 2017 |access-date=September 5, 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170905235645/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/04/arts/design/director-metropolitan-museum-search-daniel-weiss.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FMetropolitan%20Museum%20of%20Art&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=collection |archive-date=September 5, 2017 |last1=Smith |first1=Roberta }}</ref> Smith's article continued to report the negative response of local communities in the tristate area surrounding the museum which was previously introduced in a series of articles by [[Robin Pogrebin]] written during the 2016–2017 fiscal year at the museum which criticized speculative suggestions among current administrators at the museum that an added revenue stream could be pursued by the museum by rescinding existing museum policy since 1893 allowing for free public access to the museum.<ref name="nyt20170426" /> In January 2018, museum president Daniel Weiss announced that the century-old policy of free museum admission would be replaced. Effective March 2018, most visitors who do not live in New York state or are not a student from New York, New Jersey, or Connecticut have to pay $25 (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US|value=25|start_year=2018}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US}}) to enter the museum.<ref name="nypogrebin"/> The City of New York has reduced funding at the Metropolitan as part of Mayor De Blasio's political effort to increase artistic diversity. They made an agreement to allow the fees in exchange for less funding which the city pledged to use at alternate facilities and promote diversity.<ref>{{cite news | last=Pogrebin | first=Robin | title=De Blasio, With 'Cultural Plan,' Proposes Linking Money to Diversity | website=The New York Times | date=May 8, 2017 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/19/arts/design/new-york-cultural-plan-museums.html |url-access=subscription | access-date=January 12, 2018 | url-status=live | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180111062426/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/19/arts/design/new-york-cultural-plan-museums.html | archive-date=January 11, 2018 }}</ref>

Holland Carter and [[Roberta Smith]] of ''The New York Times'' argued in response to Weiss's decision to rescind the previous free admission policy as lacking in responsible fiscal planning.  They stated that a recent $65&nbsp;million expenditure for renovating fountains seemed to be a poor allocation of the limited available funding. Smith added, "Those new awful Darth Vaderish fountains take huge chunks out of the plaza and disrupt movement," as an indication of the misuse of funds.<ref>{{cite news | last1=Cotter | first1=Holland | last2=Smith | first2=Roberta | title=The Met Should Be Open to All. The New Pay Policy Is a Mistake. | newspaper=The New York Times | date=January 4, 2018 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/04/arts/design/the-met-should-be-open-to-all-the-new-pay-policy-is-a-mistake.html?_r=0 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180109121957/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/04/arts/design/the-met-should-be-open-to-all-the-new-pay-policy-is-a-mistake.html?_r=0 | archive-date=January 9, 2018 | url-status=live | access-date=July 11, 2019}}</ref> Further criticism of Weiss's proposal was voiced internationally when ''The Guardian'' summarized the backlash from the Weiss proposal for raising the admissions fees. It stated, "Some critics are outraged. The past week has seen a ''New York Times'' piece titled "The New Pay Policy Is a Mistake", while Jezebel's Aimée Lutkin claimed "The Met Should Be Fucking Free". ''The New York Post'' writes that the museum has never had the right to charge admission and Alexandra Schwartz in the ''New Yorker'' says the new policy diminishes New York City".<ref>{{cite web | last=Sayej | first=Nadja | title='Museums should be accessible': the backlash to the Met's new pricing policy | website=the Guardian | date=January 8, 2018 | url=http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/jan/08/met-museum-new-pricing-policy-backlash | access-date=July 11, 2019 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180109211513/https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/jan/08/met-museum-new-pricing-policy-backlash |archive-date=January 9, 2018 }}</ref>