thoughts about museums in the news

Why museums have become our home from home : People are visiting our galleries and museums at a startling rate. Is it the cafés, the absence of swearing... maybe even the art? /// Hugo Rifkind, The Times UK

"...So, here's theory No1: museum numbers are up, because, quite suddenly, museums aren't much like museums.
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This is what you might call the “dumbing up” theory. In other words, museum numbers are up because people are getting cleverer. (opposite to the dumbing down theory)
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That brings me to theory No3. Museum numbers are up because museums are safe. “They attract only a certain type of person, let's face it,” says Margaret Child, 79, from Essex, visiting the National with a group of older ladies and then heading off to see Sunset Boulevard: “In any museum, do you ever hear the F-word?
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Free entry has a huge amount to do with this. That should probably be Theory 4, the credit-crunch theory.
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People are flocking to museums because museums are the best public space we have..."