After September 1st, don’t expect to just waltz into the Museum of Modern Art, plop down a twenty dollar bill, and expect to start milling about all that art. Instead, you’ll need to pony up an additional $5, as the MoMA has announced it will be raising its admission fee by 25% (pdf), up to $25 for a regular ticket. Seniors and students aren’t getting a break either, as those rates will be bumped up by $2 as well. Here’s their explanation for the increase:

Since the last increase in admission prices, in 2004, the Museum has faced escalating costs in virtually all aspects of operating the Museum. As a private, non-profit institution that does not seek government funding for general operations, MoMA depends to a significant extent on earned revenue. These carefully considered increases in admission prices will help ensure that the Museum is able to maintain financial stability and a balanced budget, which in turn will allow the Museum to continue providing outstanding exhibitions and programs to a diverse audience of some 2.8 million visitors per year.

The MoMA also just recently dropped $31.2 million for the building that formerly housed the American Folk Art Museum, which likely hit the books pretty hard, given that it wasn’t a planned expansion. And in response to this price increase, Bloomberg followed that fairly familiar path by sharing the annual salary MoMA director Glenn Lowry rakes in ($1.6 million when all paychecks, bonuses and perks are added up), perhaps to make the increase go down a little less smoothly.