The Mennello Museum of American Art board of trustees this week plans to discuss a proposal to raise admission fees, in a move that museum leadership says is unrelated to the museum’s massive, multimillion-dollar expansion project that they’re hoping to break ground on later this year.
The proposed changes to admission fees for the museum — up for discussion Wednesday — are relatively modest. According to a meeting agenda posted online, the board will consider the following rate changes:
For adults, an admission fee of $8 per visitor, up from the current $5 fee.
For seniors, an admission fee of $5 per visitor, up from the current $4 fee.
For students, an admission fee of $3 per visitor, up from the current $1 fee.
For children aged 6 to 17, an admission fee of $3 per child, up from the current $1 fee.
Admission to the museum is currently free, and would remain free under this proposal for children younger than 6, and for active and retired military and veterans with valid identification.
According to Shannon Fitzgerald, executive director of the Mennello Museum, this would mark the first time the museum has altered admission fees, to her knowledge, in the 26 years it has been open. Fitzgerald told Orlando Weekly over email the proposal is “not related” to the museum’s ambitious plans for expansion — a privately funded project that is estimated to cost $30 million, according to Fitzgerald, up from the $20 million estimation the museum had initially shared with the public in 2019.
What the higher fees would really be meant to do, she says, is support museum operation costs. “Costs that, like many things, are more expensive,” Fitzgerald explained.
The Mennello Museum of American Art, located in Loch Haven Park next to Lake Formosa, is a city-owned and operated museum that was first established in 1998. It is currently housed in what was once the private home of Howard Phillips, the son of local philanthropist and citrus magnate Dr. Phillip Phillips, who is also the namesake for Orlando’s Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts downtown.
The museum features exhibitions, programming and publications celebrating traditional and contemporary American artists. As Orlando Weekly previously reported, the plan for expansion is not to demolish the current property, but rather to integrate the 40,000 square-foot expansion around the current 12,000-square-foot museum building, with a stated goal to “preserve and reimagine our green space, the intimacy of the Dr. Phillips Home, walking and bike paths, and sculpture garden.”
Even with the proposed fee hike, however, admission fees for the museum would still be something of a steal compared to admission for the nearby Orlando Museum of Art, for instance, which currently costs $20 for adults, $12 for seniors, $10 for students, and $8 for children aged 6 to 17.
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