The Denver Art Museum announced Wednesday that it will stop charging admission to visitors 18 and younger.
The museum hailed the move as a crucial advance in the cultural education of Colorado’s children, opening the door wider to a place where “a seed of a tolerance or curiousness can be implanted” as director Christoph Heinrich put it.
“As a kid growing up, this is actually a place you can learn about the entire world,” he said.
In a typical year, about 100,000 youths visit DAM.
The Kids for Free program will apply to individual visitors and kids coming with school groups. In addition, youth admission to special events, like the recent exhibitions of Vincent van Gogh paintings and Cartier jewelry, will be capped at $5.
DAM also will offer transportation subsidies for schools without the financial ability to hire buses.
The program is funded by two donations: a one-year grant from Kaiser Permanente Colorado and a five-year gift from Scott Reiman. A longtime DAM board member, Reiman founded the Denver-based private equity firm Hexagon and is president of Hexagon’s Reiman Foundation.
DAM would not disclose the amount of the gifts, but its financial reports, required by the government to secure nonprofit status, suggests the museum collects about $300,000 a year in admission from visitors 18 and under.
Heinrich said the museum has long sought a way to let kids in for free and began soliciting donors recently for the funding. When approached with the idea, Reiman “immediately said yes,” according to Hein rich.
“He has kids himself, and he knows what this means,” Heinrich said.
Until Wednesday, DAM charged $3 for most children in Colorado and $5 for nonresidents.
Ray Mark Rinaldi: 303-954-1540, rrinaldi@denverpost.com or twitter.com/rayrinaldi
