May 10, 2007 Amon Carter Museum Returns to Offering Free Admission for All Special Exhibitions

Fort Worth, TX, May 10, 2007—The Amon Carter Museum will eliminate admission fees to special exhibitions when it reopens this fall, providing free access to all of the museum’s galleries and enabling greater public access to one of the country’s finest museums of American art.

The museum will be temporarily closed beginning May 21 to undergo repairs to the building’s fire suppression system. Free admission will begin in August with the special exhibitions Chimneys and Towers: Charles Demuth’s Late Paintings of Lancaster, on view August 18 through October 14; and Accommodating Nature: The Photographs of Frank Gohlke, on view September 15, 2007, through January 6, 2008.

“The Carter’s outstanding permanent collection and the traveling exhibitions we present offer people a way to connect with the American experience through great works of art,” said Director Ron Tyler. “This is about our cultural heritage, and everyone is entitled to it.”

In 2003, the museum instituted a small admission fee for special exhibitions to help offset some of the costs related to artwork insurance and shipping, both of which increased dramatically following the events of September 11, 2001. The permanent collection remained free to the public, as stipulated Amon Carter’s will. The museum has always offered free admission to the vast majority of its programs and exhibitions, and special exhibitions were available admission-free Thursday evenings.

“The Amon Carter Museum is the community’s museum, a place where everyone is welcome, where people can come to be inspired and energized,” Tyler said. “The Board of Trustees believes that art should have a place in everyone’s life. Free admission makes that possible, and we have concluded this benefit outweighs any revenue gained from ticket sales.”

In addition to the Demuth and Gohlke exhibitions, other permanent collection installations that will be on view in the fall include A Sense of Place: Precisionism in America; With New Eyes: Exploration and the American West; 100 Years of Autochrome; and Masterworks of American Photography. The Carter’s renowned collection of American paintings and sculpture, including the world’s most important collection of works by Frederic Remington and Charles M. Russell, are on permanent display.