Museums should feel free to charge admission so as not to entirely count on government funding, particularly in a climate of austerity. Nowadays, museums are increasingly becoming entertainment, with some good museums mixing with education, of course. Analogically, a museum sounds like a public library for the purpose of education; and for that of entertainment, it is similar to a theater.

　　Bur for financial reasons, it would be a great idea to have free museums like public libraries that are available to all who are interested in gaining knowledge. Museums may be comparable to libraries in the sense that both are repositories of knowledge. Like books in the libraries, pieces of arts and other objects of cultural, scientific, or historical importance in the museums are tools for life-long education because it is through them that we discover and explore various aspects of humanity. In view of this claim, museums should be free for the good of the individual and society as a whole. Besides, free access will not only encourage more people to find out about their country but also promote feelings of national unity and identity and lead to greater understanding of foreign cultures and histories. Indeed, many people would be appalled, should public libraries charge entrance fees, so why museums should be any different?

　　Nevertheless, the core issue is about the costs of exhibitions because usually museums are extremely expensive to run. Operating on a limited annual budget, any museum would be in a crisis sooner or later without an increasingly supportive government as the only source of funding. Thus, if museums offering free general admission to visitors were entirely funded out of government money, then the pressure on other government's demands of hospitals, schools, pensions, etc. would invariably make museums a poor second, resulting in under-funding and consequently lack of excellence. This leads some people to think that museums ought to charge visitors for admission since they are designed to entertain the public as are theaters, for that matter. To be realistic in the presence of the current economic recession, the government simply could not afford to fund any activity of possible value, such as paying all the bills generated by museum management.

　　In any case, the museum purposes change from institution to institution, with some museums favoring education over entertainment, and vice versa. Were free museum entertainment considered as a cultural right, should the government make theater tickets free as well? Or should museums in financial stress just start selling off their artifacts to make ends meet?