Fogg to Charge Admission To All but Students, Staff

In an attempt to defray operating costs, the Fogg Art Museum will soon change its long-standing policy of free admission by charging non-student visitors.

Associate Director Robert A. Rotner said yesterday that the change in admissions policy, which will go into effect July 1, is the museum's best alternative to offset costs--including the skyrocketing expenses of personnel and heating.

Admission to the Fogg will be $2 for the general public, and $1 for senior citizens and students from other universities. In addition, entrance will continue to be free for all children under 18 and for all on Saturday mornings.

He added that the decision was not influenced by recent expenditures on a new museum wing, which is to be completed in a year.

Future Deficits Possible

Although the museum is currently in the black. Rotner added that he anticipates operating deficits in the near future because of increasing costs.

Fogg officials last month chose the admissions option over others, including raising money and expanding the museum bookstore. Rotner said that the Fogg may still begin a new fundraising drive to supplement the admissions charge, but ruled out a bookstore as a major source of additional income.

"We're not in the bookstore business," he said.

Although admissions fees from the Fogg's more than 100,000 yearly visitors should raise a "substantial amount" of money, according to Rotner, it will still only account for a small fraction of the total museum budget, which was over $3 million in the fiscal year 1982.

Because of Harvard's accounting system, in which each institution is considered responsible for its own budget, the Fogg's fiscal status is independent of the University's over-all financial situation.

No Admission at Yale, Elsewhere

The art museums at Yale, Princeton, and Stanford Universities all have free admission, and officials there said yesterday they do not foresee a change in policy.

Although Kate Kimelman registrar at the Stanford Art Museum, called Harvard's move "a shame," representatives of all three galleries agreed that the Fogg's surprise decision was understandable given the museum's financial predicament.