[Got an anonymous confession or rant you just have to share with the world? Submit it to I, Anonymous HERE!—eds]
I am an art student at Portland State University, pursuing my BFA. It is such a privilege to be an art student at a school down the street from our beautiful Portland Art Museum. Unfortunately, the museum, for some reason I cannot fathom, does not want to make itself accessible to myself and my fellow students at PSU college of art. For an adult day pass, it costs $27.50. For a college student day pass, it costs us $22.50. That discount is insulting.
I am taking an art history class this term, and several of my assignments involve independent or class trips to the museum. I was told by my professor to go to the museum, and upon presenting my student ID to the front desk, I should be given a $35 pass for the quarter. I went down to the museum the next day, student ID in hand, only to be told that they no longer give passes directly to students, as we must receive them through our professors, and that I really should inform my teacher of the change. I cannot imagine what the museum gains by adding yet another obstacle for art students to surpass in order to attend.
As an artist, I love the art museum, of course. On the first Thursday of every month, admission is free, and every first Thursday I am there. I am in class Monday through Friday, just blocks away, wishing to spend breaks and afternoons in the museum, and yet admission feels so out of reach.
This is my plea to the Portland Art Museum:
With my student ID, especially as a student of the PSU college of art, I should be granted access for under ten dollars, or, better yet, for free. If granted access to the museum for eight dollars per visit, there would be weeks I am there every single day. Learning, studying and growing my artistic knowledge. Is that not what the museum is there for?—Anonymous