ABBA museum steps into spotlight

A new museum dedicated to iconic group ABBA is set to open in Stockholm on May 7. Above, ABBA after their 1974 win in the Eurovision Song Contest for Waterloo. Pic Bengt H. Malmqvist / Premium Rockshot. Source: Supplied

FANS of the legendary Swedish disco group ABBA can hardly wait: in just a few weeks, Stockholm will open the doors to the world's first museum dedicated to the iconic foursome.

After ABBA The Movie in 1977, the Mamma Mia! musical and movie, and a 2010 travelling museum exhibit, the world's first permanent ABBA museum will open in central Stockholm on May 7.

"We're going to offer visitors a unique experience," said museum director Mattias Hansson. Visitors may even get a chance to speak live with a band member.

After months of construction, the modern, blonde wood building in the leafy Djurgarden neighbourhood is nearing completion.

As opening day looms, convoys of trucks roll up to the site to deliver the furnishings and items that will make up the collection: flamboyant sequined costumes, gold records, and recreations of their recording studio and dressing rooms, among other things.

Workers bustle to finish what will be a temple to the creators of some of the biggest hits of the 1970s, including Voulez Vous, Dancing Queen and Waterloo, the song that won the band the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest and thrust them onto the international scene.

Through the museum's big windows, passersby can catch a glimpse of a large main room. Few people have been authorised to enter the premises, as organisers are intent on keeping things under wraps until the official opening.

Museum director Mattias Hansson and the curator and former ABBA stylist Ingmarie Halling pose near the construction site of the ABBA Museum. Picture: AFP

But they have let slip a few details.

For example, fans who have dreamt of becoming the fifth member of the band will be able to appear on stage with the quartet and record a song with them thanks to a computer simulation.

And in another room dedicated to the song Ring, Ring, a 1970s telephone will be on display. Only four people know the phone number: ABBA members Agnetha Faeltskog, Anni-Frid (Frida) Lyngstad, Benny Andersson and Bjoern Ulvaeus, who may occasionally call to speak live with museum visitors.

"It was Frida's idea...so of course she'll call," says curator Ingmarie Halling.

The museum will naturally pay homage to ABBA's music.

"We have to have the best isolation in the world to be able to play different music in each room," Mr Hansson jokes.

Former ABBA band member Bjoern Ulvaeus visits the ABBA museum construction site in Stockholm. Picture: AP

But he doesn't expect visitors to flock to the museum to hear the group's hits, since fans already know them by heart.

Rather, they will get to relive the band's active years and get a sense of their lives behind the scenes.

ABBA last appeared on stage together in 1982, and split a year later.

They have repeatedly refused to reunite.

"We will never appear on stage again," Ulvaeus said in a 2008 interview with Britain's The Sunday Telegraph.

"There is simply no motivation to regroup. Money is not a factor and we would like people to remember us as we were," he said.

After the split, the band members each went their own way and they've rarely appeared in public together - in 2008, they attended the Stockholm premiere of the movie Mamma Mia! - so getting all four involved in the making of the museum is a coup.

Halling - the band's stylist from 1976 to 1980, an era she describes as "fun and magnificent" - has been instrumental in collaborating with them.

"They've lent us lots of stuff and I call them to tell them my ideas and they say, 'sure, go ahead!'," Halling explains.

As the person behind some of their glitzy and flamboyant costumes, Halling has made sure that many of their outfits are included in the exhibit.

Visitors will also be "able to experience how the ABBA members' lived their lives," she says. The four will recount their own side of things in the museum's audio guide.

The 1999 musical Mamma Mia!, and the 2008 film of the same name starring Meryl Streep, brought their music to a whole new generation of fans who weren't alive in the 1970s.

The group has sold some 378 million albums worldwide, outdone only by Elvis Presley and the Beatles.

"Our office is right next to Benny Andersson's. When I tell people in other countries that, and that I pass him on the street sometimes, people are like: 'No! Really? He walks in the street just like that?'," says Jeppe Wikstroem, an editor working on a book of previously unpublished ABBA photographs.

The museum's website says it expects to attract a quarter of a million visitors in 2013.

"It's very exciting," says Micke Bayart, a 45-year old who headed the band's official fan club in the 1980s.

"ABBA is part of Sweden's musical history, it's only right that there be a museum dedicated to them: they deserve it," he said.

Tickets for the museum - which cost 23 euros ($29) - are almost sold out for the first few weeks, going primarily to tourists from abroad, museum director Hansson said.

Those who can't get their hands on a ticket will have to be content with a glimpse of some of the band's costumes on display at the arrival hall of Stockholm's Arlanda airport.
 

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Met museum accused of defrauding public

Confusion over the entry requirements to the Metropolitan Museum of Art is at the heart of a class-action lawsuit this month. Picture: Mary Altaffer Source: AP

BEFORE visitors to the Metropolitan Museum of Art can stroll past the priceless collection, they must first deal with the ticket line and the "recommended" $25 adult admission.

Many people, especially foreign tourists, either don't see it, don't understand it or don't question it. If they ask, they are told the fee is merely a suggested donation: You can pay what you wish but you must pay something.

Some who choose to pay less than the full price pull out a $10 or $5 bill. Some fork over a buck or loose change. Those who balk at paying anything at all are told they won't be allowed in unless they pay something, even a penny.

"I just asked for one adult general admissions and he just said, '$25,'" says Richard Johns, a high school maths teacher from Little Rock, Arkansas, who paid the full price at the museum this past week. "It should be made clear that it is a donation you are required to make. Especially for foreign tourists who don't understand. Most people don't know it."

Confusion over what's required to enter one of the world's great museums, which draws more than 6 million visitors a year, is at the heart of a class-action lawsuit this month accusing the Met of scheming to defraud the public into believing the fees are required.

The lawsuit contends that the museum uses misleading marketing and training of cashiers to violate an 1893 New York state law that mandates the public should be admitted for free at least five days and two evenings per week. In exchange, the museum gets annual grants from the city and free rent for its building and land along pricey Fifth Avenue in Central Park.

Museum spokesman Harold Holzer denied any deception and said a policy of requiring visitors to pay at least something has been in place for more than four decades. "We are confident that the courts will see through this insupportable nuisance lawsuit."

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City attracts more than 6 million visitors a year. Picture: Mary Altaffer

The suit seeks compensation for museum members and visitors who paid by credit card over the past few years.

"The museum was designed to be open to everyone, without regard to their financial circumstances," said Arnold Weiss, one of two attorneys who filed the lawsuit on behalf of three museum-goers, a New Yorker and two tourists from the Czech Republic. "But instead, the museum has been converted into an elite tourist attraction."

Among the allegations are that third-party websites do not mention the recommended fee, and that the museum sells memberships that carry the benefit of free admission, even though the public is already entitled to free admission.

Lined up to testify is a former museum supervisor who oversaw and trained the Met's admissions cashiers from 2007 to 2011. Michael Hiller, the other attorney representing the plaintiffs, said the supervisor trained cashiers to encourage visitors to pay the full freight by saying things like "you must realise it is very expensive to run the museum." He will also say that in 2010-2011 the term on the sign was changed from "suggested" to "recommended" because administrators believed it was a stronger word that would encourage people to pay more.

Mr Holzer denied the former employee's allegations. He also said the basis for the lawsuit - that admission is intended to be free - is wrong because the state law the plaintiffs cited has been superceded many times and the city approved pay-what-you-wish admissions in 1970.

"The idea that the museum is free to everyone who doesn't wish to pay has not been in force for nearly 40 years," Mr Holzer said, adding, "Yes, you do have to pay something."

As to the wording change on the sign, he said the museum "actually thought at the time, and still thinks, that 'recommended' is softer than 'suggested,' so the former employee is quite wrong here."

New York City's Department of Cultural Affairs agreed to the museum's request in 1970 for a general admission as long as the amount was left up to individuals and that the signage reflected that. Similar arrangements are in place for other cultural institutions that operate on city-owned land and property and receive support from the city, such as the American Museum of Natural History and the Brooklyn Museum. It's also a model that's been replicated in other cities.

The Metropolitan Museum is one of the world's richest cultural institutions, with a US $2.58 billion ($2.46 billion) investment portfolio, and is not reliant on admissions fees to pay the majority of its bills. Only about 11 per cent of the museum's operating expenses were covered by admissions charges in the 2012 fiscal year. As a nonprofit organisation, the museum pays no income taxes.

Mr Holzer also noted that in the past fiscal year, 41 per cent of visitors to the museum paid the full recommended admission price - $25 for adults, $17 for seniors and $12 for students.

A random sampling of visitors leaving the museum found that there was a general awareness that "recommended" implied you could pay less than the posted price.

But Dan Larson and his son Jake, visiting the museum last week from Duluth, Minnesota, were unaware there was any room to negotiate the admission price. They paid the full $25 each for adult tickets.

"My understanding was you pay the recommended price," said Larson, 50. "That's clearly not displayed."

Alexander Kulessa, a 23-year-old university student from Germany, said friends who had previously visited New York tipped him off about the admission fee.

"They said, 'Don't pay $25,'" said Kulessa. "They said it will be written everywhere to pay $25 but you don't have to pay that. You don't even have to pay the student price."

For Colette Leger, a tourist from Toronto who visited the museum with her teenage daughter, paying the full $25 was worth every penny.

"It's a beautiful museum and I was happy to pay," she said.

View the original article here

Met museum accused of defrauding public

Confusion over the entry requirements to the Metropolitan Museum of Art is at the heart of a class-action lawsuit this month. Picture: Mary Altaffer Source: AP

BEFORE visitors to the Metropolitan Museum of Art can stroll past the priceless collection, they must first deal with the ticket line and the "recommended" $25 adult admission.

Many people, especially foreign tourists, either don't see it, don't understand it or don't question it. If they ask, they are told the fee is merely a suggested donation: You can pay what you wish but you must pay something.

Some who choose to pay less than the full price pull out a $10 or $5 bill. Some fork over a buck or loose change. Those who balk at paying anything at all are told they won't be allowed in unless they pay something, even a penny.

"I just asked for one adult general admissions and he just said, '$25,'" says Richard Johns, a high school maths teacher from Little Rock, Arkansas, who paid the full price at the museum this past week. "It should be made clear that it is a donation you are required to make. Especially for foreign tourists who don't understand. Most people don't know it."

Confusion over what's required to enter one of the world's great museums, which draws more than 6 million visitors a year, is at the heart of a class-action lawsuit this month accusing the Met of scheming to defraud the public into believing the fees are required.

The lawsuit contends that the museum uses misleading marketing and training of cashiers to violate an 1893 New York state law that mandates the public should be admitted for free at least five days and two evenings per week. In exchange, the museum gets annual grants from the city and free rent for its building and land along pricey Fifth Avenue in Central Park.

Museum spokesman Harold Holzer denied any deception and said a policy of requiring visitors to pay at least something has been in place for more than four decades. "We are confident that the courts will see through this insupportable nuisance lawsuit."

The suit seeks compensation for museum members and visitors who paid by credit card over the past few years.

"The museum was designed to be open to everyone, without regard to their financial circumstances," said Arnold Weiss, one of two attorneys who filed the lawsuit on behalf of three museum-goers, a New Yorker and two tourists from the Czech Republic. "But instead, the museum has been converted into an elite tourist attraction."

Among the allegations are that third-party websites do not mention the recommended fee, and that the museum sells memberships that carry the benefit of free admission, even though the public is already entitled to free admission.

Lined up to testify is a former museum supervisor who oversaw and trained the Met's admissions cashiers from 2007 to 2011. Michael Hiller, the other attorney representing the plaintiffs, said the supervisor trained cashiers to encourage visitors to pay the full freight by saying things like "you must realise it is very expensive to run the museum." He will also say that in 2010-2011 the term on the sign was changed from "suggested" to "recommended" because administrators believed it was a stronger word that would encourage people to pay more.

Mr Holzer denied the former employee's allegations. He also said the basis for the lawsuit - that admission is intended to be free - is wrong because the state law the plaintiffs cited has been superceded many times and the city approved pay-what-you-wish admissions in 1970.

"The idea that the museum is free to everyone who doesn't wish to pay has not been in force for nearly 40 years," Mr Holzer said, adding, "Yes, you do have to pay something."

As to the wording change on the sign, he said the museum "actually thought at the time, and still thinks, that 'recommended' is softer than 'suggested,' so the former employee is quite wrong here."

New York City's Department of Cultural Affairs agreed to the museum's request in 1970 for a general admission as long as the amount was left up to individuals and that the signage reflected that. Similar arrangements are in place for other cultural institutions that operate on city-owned land and property and receive support from the city, such as the American Museum of Natural History and the Brooklyn Museum. It's also a model that's been replicated in other cities.

The Metropolitan Museum is one of the world's richest cultural institutions, with a US $2.58 billion ($2.46 billion) investment portfolio, and is not reliant on admissions fees to pay the majority of its bills. Only about 11 per cent of the museum's operating expenses were covered by admissions charges in the 2012 fiscal year. As a nonprofit organisation, the museum pays no income taxes.

Mr Holzer also noted that in the past fiscal year, 41 per cent of visitors to the museum paid the full recommended admission price - $25 for adults, $17 for seniors and $12 for students.

A random sampling of visitors leaving the museum found that there was a general awareness that "recommended" implied you could pay less than the posted price.

But Dan Larson and his son Jake, visiting the museum last week from Duluth, Minnesota, were unaware there was any room to negotiate the admission price. They paid the full $25 each for adult tickets.

"My understanding was you pay the recommended price," said Larson, 50. "That's clearly not displayed."

Alexander Kulessa, a 23-year-old university student from Germany, said friends who had previously visited New York tipped him off about the admission fee.

"They said, 'Don't pay $25,'" said Kulessa. "They said it will be written everywhere to pay $25 but you don't have to pay that. You don't even have to pay the student price."

For Colette Leger, a tourist from Toronto who visited the museum with her teenage daughter, paying the full $25 was worth every penny.

"It's a beautiful museum and I was happy to pay," she said.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City attracts more than 6 million visitors a year. Picture: Mary Altaffer

View the original article here