By Kathryn Diamond, Detroit Institute of Arts

Summertime in the museum is ordinarily a quiet place with visitors coming to wander the quiet galleries to escape the summer heat.  Not so this year!  On the heels of a positive vote for the tri-county millage on August 7^th, a blockbuster exhibition of Five Spanish Masterpieces, and the loan of the stunning Vermeer “Woman holding a Balance”, our overall museum attendance has been impacted in a big way!  The Great Indoors has been a great place to be this summer!

One of the benefits to community members voting for the millage was free general admission to the museum.  Excited crowds awaiting entry to the museum were welcomed by staff on August 8^th as we implemented the free admission policy.   Having just reviewed monthly attendance, the results are in and over the past month our in-museum attendance has risen over 49%!  Not bad for a normally sleepy August!

As Community Relations Manager at the museum, over the past year, my job has involved taking the museum outside the walls of the museum; so I’ve been thinking …how has our yearly attendance been impacted by programs both in and out of the museum over the past year?  In fact, our overall museum admission has gone up from 392,128 to 483,942, or 23% over the past fiscal year!  Exhibitions such as Rembrandt and the Face of Jesus, Detroit Revealed, and Gift of a Lifetime (among others) undoubtedly contribute to this number.  Significant increases in the number of art to the school classroom visits, field trips, and Speakers Bureau talks have also been recorded.  Community engagement efforts such programs with the Italian American Cultural Center and Assumption Cultural Center and Inside|Out brought the DIA to the community and the community in turn to the museum!

Our effort to engage our community both inside and outside the museum walls has just been affirmed and we look forward to continuing the path forward.

The Detroit Institute of the Arts