Museums on the Market

Within the context of serious cutbacks in cultural funding by the Dutch government, this thesis poses the question whether there is a support base among the public of arts and heritage to finance (part of) its activities. The functions of art museums are manifold and create complex issues in financing the museum. To narrow down the question, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen has been chosen as a case-study. To measure the willingness among visitors to financially support the exhibition program of the museum with yearly contributions, a contingent valuation study was used. Visitors nearing the exit were asked to fill in a survey. Questions were added concerning their cultural preferences, visiting patterns and socio-demographic profile. From a dataset of 105 respondents, a visitors’ profile could be constructed. Following that, the analysis of the willingness-to-pay question showed that only a minor proportion (38,5%) wanted to contribute to the museum’s exhibition program. Excluding for protest bids, this resulted in an average WTP of € 8,74. To explain the high amount of zero-bids respondents were asked directly for the main reason behind their unwillingness. This pointed out that visitors are certainly aware of other financing methods as sponsors and admission pricing, but also of the responsibility of the government in financing the activities of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. The respondents who were willing to financially commit themselves to the museum expected opportunities in return which would widen and deepen the experience of their visit. The distinguishing characteristics that mainly explain the decision to support were age, income and frequency of visits. In general, this thesis tries to show that the support base of an organization depends on the efforts made to communicate and interact with the public, emphasizing the role of new media and reputation