Want to see dinosaur bones or wooly mammoths stuck in gooey tar? Or butterflies of dazzling colors flitting about in a netted pavilion?
These and many other displays of nature’s wonders past and present are available to experience at three Los Angeles County science museums. But starting July 1, you will have to pay 20% more for a general admission ticket to nature on display.
On Tuesday, May 23, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted 4-0 to raise the admission prices at the county’s Natural History Museum (NHM) located in Exposition Park; the La Brea Tar Pits and George C. Page Museum in Hancock Park.
The Board also increased the price of the popular Junior Lifeguard Program.
Adult general admission tickets to each museum will jump from $15 per person to $18. The reduced rates for seniors, students and youth, ages 13 to 17, will rise from $12 to $14. Tickets for children 3 to 12 are $7.
After experiencing closures during 2020 and parts of 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, museum revenues dropped. But in 2022 and this year, the museums are seeing an influx of visitors and school groups, and that means greater costs for staffing, exhibit upkeep and maintenance.
L.A. County Supervisors Hilda Solis, Janice Hahn, Lindsey Horvath and Kathryn Barger approved the county museums’ price hikes. Supervisor Holly Mitchell was absent. Some of the supervisors felt the museum administration should pursue other ways to close a combined $1 million operating deficit.
The added revenue will bring in between $900,000 and $1.1 million to close the deficit. Extra revenues will help pay for labor costs from recent wage increases, to offset free and reduced price admissions, and to enable expansion of engagement at county libraries, parks and schools. The Natural History Museum anticipates completing a welcome center and a commons available to the public without paid admission. These improvements also add to operating costs.
Because school field trips are…
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