IELTS WRITING TASK 2 - TOPIC: MUSEUM

Hello,

I'm about to take the IELTS test, which is very important to me as it will go to my portfolio for university application. This is one of the pieces I have written, and I would appreciate any of your comment. Thank you very much!

‘A country’s museums should always be free for people to visit, whatever the visitor’s age, income or nationality.’

To what level do you agree with this idea? Should museums always be free for all visitors?

Museums are the places that provide precious knowledge and experience to their visitors. Some believe that it should be made free for all people to visit a museum, despite their age, income or nationality. From my perspective, this proposal is not ideal, and an optimal choice would be to still charge a fee for the entrance of certain areas in a museum.

Regarding the benefits of the idea, free entrance to museums facilitates the knowledge acquirement of children and get them to be more engaged in the subjects. For instance, it is much more captivating and exciting for students to be taken to a war museum rather than to listen to a long history lecture. Their interest in the topic will encourage them to take the initiative in searching for new knowledge, and attain better academic achievements. Moving on to adults, free visit to museums is a way for them to escape from their stressful working life. Researches shows that fine arts can effectively relieve stress and enhance creativity. It can also prevent mental illness, such as depression and autism. Therefore, being able to enter museums without any charge is highly beneficial to people’s mental health and productivity.

Nevertheless, despite all the benefits in eliminating museums’ entrance fee, those money also plays an essential part to the development and maintainace of the museums. Firstly, the amount collected from visitors can be reinvested into expanding the collections and improving the quality of exhibitions. The world-famous museum of Louvre in Paris is a great example of this practice. That way, people will be provided with much more authentic and memorable experience while visiting the spot. Furthermore, charging entrance fee is a method to manage to number of visitor, in order to maintain the quality of the displayed items. It is not rare for historical artifacts, or invaluable pieces of arts in popular museums to be damaged, whether accidentally or deliberately, by visitors when there are too many people dropping in. Therefore, it is vital for the areas that hold precious items to only have a limited number of visitor. It would facilitate the supervision over the people, and prevent items from being damaged, as well as better the experience of the guests.

In conclusion, even though free entrance to museums brings multiple benefits to people of all ages, a fee is necessary in order to conserve the precious items and upgrade the content of the exhibitions. The prime option is to grant free access to some areas of the museum, and charge for the entrance of sectors that have the most valuable pieces.