Free art

One of our guiding principles here at The New England Journal of Aesthetic Research is that art should be freely (or at least cheaply) accessible to all. As Vermont's Peter Schumann has written in his “Why Cheap Art? Manifesto”: “People have been thinking too long that art is a privilege of the museums & the rich. Art is not a business! It does not belong to bankers & fancy investors. Art is food. You can’t eat it but it feeds you. Art has to be cheap & available to everybody…” In this spirit, we have added a list of free days at New England museums to the sidebar.

Note that the Boston Museum of Fine Arts' free admission evening does not give you access to their special exhibits – and tickets to see these shows are among the most expensive visual art admission fees in the nation. There is much debate about Malcom Rogers and company’s so-called populist shows (we’re in favor of the MFA’s exhibits of animation, cars, guitars, Herb Ritts, sailboats, Paris fashion), but affordability is the true test of a museum’s populism.

If there are free days that we’ve overlooked, please let us know.