The Drawing Center Plans Temporary Free Admission, and More from October 1, 2019

Tuesday, October 1, 2019

The Drawing Center.The Drawing Center.

PAUL WARCHOL/COURTESY THE DRAWING CENTER

The Drawing Center in New York Plans Temporary Free Admission

As museums of all kinds rethink their admissions policies, one New York–based institution has a plan to comp all fees entirely for a few months. For the full run of its upcoming exhibition “The Pencil Is a Key: Drawings by Incarcerated Artists,” which opens on October 11 and runs through January 5, the Drawing Center will waive all admission charges. (The funds necessary to undergo the temporary policy change came via an anonymous donation.)

“The Pencil Is a Key” takes as its focus a broad definition of incarceration, with works on view by political prisoners such as Ruth Asawa and Gustav Courbet, as well as pieces by artists kept in Russian gulags, Guantanamo Bay, and countries run by dictators. In a statement, Laura Hoptman, the center’s director, said, “Our hope is that free admission will foster increased engagement with the content of the exhibition and encourage visitors of all backgrounds to come back and experience the show on multiple occasions.” —Alex Greenberger