ROM CEO Nicholas Bell on making the museum free: 'Access to culture should be a right, not a privilege'

Nicholas Bell arrived at the Royal Ontario Museum fresh from transforming Calgary's Glenbow into a community space. Now, as the ROM's new CEO, he is applying those lessons to one of Canada's largest institutions—beginning with radical accessibility.

"Access to culture should be a right, not a privilege," Bell said. The $130 million OpenROM renovation underway on Bloor Street will "quite literally open the museum up to the public, including improved entrances and accessibility." The ground floor will be free, thanks to a $30 million endowment from the Temerty Foundation.

Bell is the first Canadian to lead the ROM since William Thorsell departed 15 years ago. At Glenbow, he made it the first major public museum in Canada with free general admission—a model he credits with reshaping how people engage with museums.

"Museums are going through an identity crisis," Bell reflected. Institutions are expected to be tourist attractions, research centres, historical preservers, and moral arbiters all at once. "The question is, How do we create an inclusive ROM? Radical accessibility is one way to do it."

Concerns about revenue loss from free admission are legitimate, but the ROM ran a small surplus in its last fiscal year and received $15 million in permanent operating funding from the province. "I believe we have a solid financial footing moving forward," Bell said.

Drawing people back isn't just about eliminating admission fees. "People will engage if you let them have fun," he said. "Maybe they come here for a DJ set at ROM After Dark. Maybe they just want to get lunch at our café. We want people to see the museum as a place to connect."

Bell's childhood visit to the ROM at age eight—seeing the Egyptian exhibition and later watching the Blue Jays at Exhibition Stadium—left a lasting impression. His grandmother's house, packed with generations of collected objects, taught him that objects tell stories about people's lives. Today, he wears a brooch every day, a habit he started after buying his first piece at the St. Lawrence Antique Market a decade ago, when he learned they were 1960s and '70s handmade enamel copper pieces.

That sensibility—objects as windows into lives and history—shapes his vision for the ROM. The renovation and free admission, he believes, will create space for wonder.