Wall Street Protesters ‘Occupy’ MoMA, Slam $25 Admission, Don Gorilla Mask

[xchrom]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-21/wall-street-protesters-occupy-moma-slam-admission-don-mask.html

Five weeks after protesters occupied a Lower Manhattan plaza to press for economic and political change, they’ve turned their attention to what they call “temples of cultural elitism,” New York’s museums.

Members of an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street calling itself Occupy Museums yesterday targeted the Museum of Modern Art and the New Museum of Contemporary Art.

They took turns reading from a statement, with the crowd repeating each line in a call-and-response system used at their Wall Street base in Zuccotti Park and in many protests.

“The Occupy Wall Street Movement will bring forth an era of new art, true experimentation outside the narrow parameters set by the market,” was the chant at one point, voiced by a crowd comprising a few dozen artists, students and passers-by outside MoMA.

[vi5]

1. Oh this is ridiculous....

This is where we always lose any momentum. When these sidebar distractions and unrelated contingents start piggybacking.

[dkf]

4. I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way.

"ridiculous" was exactly the word that came to mind.

[Nye Bevan]

2. MoMA has free admission on Fridays between 4 PM and 8:30 PM.

So it's not that hard to avoid the $25 fee.

I'm not sure how productive this really is.

[Bluenorthwest]

3. The admission fees are outrageous

And they prevent many from having acsses to the museums. Occupy Art.

[dkf]

5. How do you expect them to pay their employees a living wage?

If you want people to be able to live on a decent salary, we all have to pay more not less.

[rocktivity]

10. But TWENTY-FIVE DOLLARS?

That makes art for the richest, not the public. The rest of us are supposed to live on the four and a half hours a week worth of crumbs they're willing to toss us? Let them eat cake, indeed! They have my support--occupy away!

:applause:
rocktivity

[dkf]

12. If you go to the movies you probably pay that for the ticket, a hotdog and a drink.

[Nye Bevan]

13. The absolute worst "price-gouging" is movie theater soda.

One of those large sodas probably costs a few cents to make. The profit margin is obscene.

[dkf]

14. Profits pay employees.

Just think how much you need to get paid hourly to make a decent wage.

It's pretty daunting for startups I imagine.

[rocktivity]

15. I stopped going to the movies decades ago, and for precisely the same reason

The last movie I saw in a theater (and felt it was money well spent) was Farenheit 911.

MoMA is asking me to believe that they wouldn't make more money if they charged everyone five to ten dollars? If their rent is too damn high, they should move to a cheaper neighborhood like the rest of us do.

For twenty-five dollars, a museum employee would have to CARRY me from exhibit to exhibit!

:rofl:
rocktivity

[vi5]

6. Art is everywhere....

There are plenty of museums and places to see art that charge nothing, or less than the MOMA.

I'd love to see the paintings in the Louvre, but I'm not crying that it's some kind of injustice that I would have to pay for a plane ticket to Europe to see what's there. Instead I find places that I can go to and that I can afford that provide me with the pleasure of being able to enjoy art.

[Nye Bevan]

8. Again. Anyone can go for free any Friday between 4 PM and 8:30 PM.

Admission is free for all visitors during Target Free Friday Nights, held every Friday evening from 4:00 to 8:30 p.m. Tickets for Target Free Friday Nights are not available in advance. Your Target Free Friday Night ticket permits you to all other Museum galleries, exhibitions, and films.

http://www.moma.org/visit/plan/index#hours

So anyone can go to MoMA for free. But nobody can go to the movies for free. So I guess these people should be occupying movie theaters instead.

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[TreasonousBastard]

7. Let's see now... We want to bleed Wall Street dry, but...

wealthy donors are what keep the museums open, 25 buck admission notwithstanding.

Oh, right-- total public funding. That's the ticket!

[BREMPRO]

9. distraction from the core message.. this is dumb. n/t