Good morning. It's Thursday. Today we'll find out when you can visit the Whitney Museum without paying the usual $30 for admission. We'll also see what happened on the last day of testimony in Donald Trump's civil trial in Manhattan.
Going to a museum can be expensive. The Metropolitan Museum of Art charges $30 for general admission tickets for adults, though it lets in museumgoers from the New York area for as little as a penny under a pay-what-you-wish policy. The Museum of Modern Art also charges $30 for general admission. But MoMA charges no admission to New York City residents between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. on the first Friday of the month. The Whitney Museum has had a pay-what-you-wish policy on Friday evenings. (It charges $30 for adults the rest of the day on Friday and on other days.) But the museum is dropping the pay-what-you-wish plan starting Jan. 12, and going to free admission on Fridays after 5 p.m. The Whitney will also drop admission charges on the second Sunday of each month, starting on Jan. 14. "We know that pricing can be a barrier to access," said Scott Rothkopf, the director of the Whitney. Whitney officials said the pay-what-you-wish model had confused visitors: Did it mean free? "Pay-what-you-wish is not a phrase everybody understands," Rothkopf said. "It's important to be straightforward and say we're free for anyone, at any age, wherever you come from, during those times." The tickets for the Free Fridays and Second Sundays must be reserved in advance. The Whitney's hope is that the free entry periods will make the museum more inviting — and expand its appeal. Jen Rubio, a trustee of the museum and a co-founder of Away, a luggage and travel accessory company, was one of the donors behind Free Fridays, and said in a statement that the program was aimed at "opening the doors to an even larger audience, most importantly one that is younger and more diverse." Museums' audiences have slowly returned since the pandemic. The Met says attendance is about 90 percent of what it was before the pandemic for New York-area residents and national visitors. But visits by foreign tourists have not rebounded. The Met says it is seeing slightly more than half as many as before the pandemic. As for pricing, stratospheric admission charges are a 21st-century development — and there is a thicket of pricing structures. As my colleague Zachary Small observed several months ago, admission to the Museum of Modern Art was free when it opened. The Met, which used to be entirely pay-what-you-wish, began charging museumgoers who do not live in New York State a mandatory admission fee in 2018. The move came as fewer people were paying the suggested admission price, $25 at the time. Now the Met charges those from outside New York $30. General admission tickets are $22 for seniors. Students from New York are admitted free.
MoMA raised its admission price to $30, from $25, in October. It also raised prices for several other categories, including people 65 and above and students. Glenn Lowry, the director of MoMA, said at the time that "these changes in admission price will help the museum maintain financial stability." The prices drop $2 for tickets purchased online. WEATHER Expect a breezy and brisk day with high temperatures in the low 40s and a wind chill in the 20s. At night, low temperatures will be in the mid-30s. ALTERNATE-SIDE PARKING In effect until Dec. 25 (Christmas Day). The latest New York news
Local news
Best NYC eats 2023
We hope you've enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times. Testimony wraps up in Trump fraud trial
Donald Trump's lawyers interrupted the last witness in his civil trial with an argument about the difference between two verbs — "could" and "would." And then the testimony in the trial was over. A verdict remains weeks, if not months, away. Looking back over a couple of months of testimony, my colleagues Jonah E. Bromwich and Kate Christobek wrote that the proceedings were typically dry, muddled and characterized by fighting between the parties — particularly when Trump was in attendance.
Trump had been expected to take the witness stand again this week but canceled his appearance. When the trial resumed, it was clear that the lawyers on both sides were exhausted. Those on the New York attorney general's team seemed particularly eager for things to wrap up. When Trump's lawyers said that a Trump Organization witness might return, they objected in the strongest terms. "We want the case to end," said one state lawyer, Kevin Wallace. The two sides are expected to submit closing briefs next month. They are scheduled to appear before the judge, Arthur Engoron, on Jan. 11. His decision is expected in late January at the earliest. The case stemmed from a lawsuit filed by the New York attorney general, Letitia James. She accused the former president of fraudulently inflating his net worth to obtain favorable treatment from banks and insurers. James, a Democrat, has asked that Justice Engoron fine Trump $250 million or more and bar him and the other defendants in the case from running a business in New York. Trump, a Republican, has said the case is part of a political vendetta against him. The trial had been transformed before it began, with a pretrial ruling from Justice Engoron that said annual financial statements compiled by the former president and the other defendants had contained fraud. "While the judge already ruled in our favor and found that Donald Trump engaged in years of significant fraud and unjustly enriched himself and his family," James said in a statement, "this trial revealed the full extent of that fraud — and the defendants' inability to disprove it." A lawyer for Trump, Christopher Kise, said in a statement that witnesses for the defense had "confirmed what was clear from the outset, namely, that there was no fraud, there were no victims and there has simply been no harm." He added, "At this point the trial court must and should follow the law and the indisputable evidence and put an end to the attorney general's manifestly unjust political crusade." METROPOLITAN DIARY Egg-shaped chairs
Dear Diary: The seventh-floor restaurant at Bergdorf Goodman has two tables next to the windows that featured egg-shaped chairs that allow for discreet conversation while offering a view of Central Park. When I did not see the chairs on one recent visit, I asked whether they had been decommissioned. A store employee said they had been used for outside dining during the pandemic, were being refurbished and would be back soon with a fresh new look. "Kind of like many of our customers," he added. — C.W. Byrne Illustrated by Agnes Lee. Send submissions here and read more Metropolitan Diary here. Glad we could get together here. See you tomorrow. — J.B. P.S. Here's today's Mini Crossword and Spelling Bee. You can find all our puzzles here. Melissa Guerrero, Kellina Moore and Ed Shanahan contributed to New York Today. You can reach the team at nytoday@nytimes.com. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
N.Y. Today: Visit the Whitney Museum for free
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment