Doubling admissions to the ICA

Everybody loves a freebie, especially these days.

For Penn's Institute of Contemporary Art, offering free admission has more than doubled its number of visitors.

The museum, located on 36th and Sansom streets, has always been free for the Penn community but charged $6 for outside visitors. In July, after receiving a donation from 1988 Wharton alumnus Glenn Fuhrman, the ICA eliminated costs to the general public for the next five years.

"We knew we would see an uptick in visitations but we did not anticipate anything close to 100 percent," said Marilyn Pollick, director of development at the museum. "Prior to [the donation], our modest admission gave us a disadvantage to drawing in the public given all the other cultural organizations there are in southern Philly," she added.

During the first four weeks of its fall season last year, the museum received 600 visitors. This year, it received 1600 - an increase of 267 percent. Pollick says September is one of the museum's most popular months and that numbers for the year have doubled.

The first signs of the explosion in popularity occurred over the summer, when museum traffic is usually slower due to the drop in number of students on campus. But this past summer, the ICA actually saw an increase in visitors.

Pollick attributes the majority of the swell in attendance to tourists, who currently account for one out of every three visitors. That number marks a significant increase from past years, when an overwhelming majority of visitors were Penn students, faculty and staff, who make up a quarter to a third of attendance.

There is also an increase in the number of return visits and family visits, according to Director of Marketing and Communications Jill Katz.

College senior Anastasia Kouriatova, an intern at the ICA and chair of its student advisory board, said she also noticed significantly more visitors - primarily tourists - during the day on weekdays since admission became free.

"It's an out of the way destination in the city but the fact that it's free is now attracting a lot of people," she said.

Kouriatova added that though she didn't think attendance from the Penn community went up, she noticed students bringing their family and said some of her friends who lived nearby were more likely to visit.

The ICA will not add any programs, as it hopes its current ones will be used to a fuller extent. It hopes to accommodate the rise in visitors with the same budget and staff.

The current economic turmoil is also a mixed blessing for the ICA's future. Pollick predicts attendance will keep rising from visitors hoping to save money, but Katz questioned whether visitors will continue to make generous enough donations to sustain free admission after the original five years are up.

However, the ICA remains optimistic about continuing to offer free access for all beyond the five year period.

"I think once overseers and alumni see that free admission is something that can only burnish Penn's reputation, there will be donors who will step up to the plate," she said.

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