The Metropolitan Museum of Art saw a large leap in attendance to 7 million visitors at its three New York City locations – The Met Fifth Avenue, The Met Cloisters, and The Met Breuer.
The increase in attendance over the last fiscal year is mainly due to a large influx of visitors to The Met Breuer. A total of 505,590 visitors walked through its doors.
“The Met is thrilled to see our visitors responding so enthusiastically to our collection, exhibitions, and programmes,” said Daniel H. Weiss, President and CEO of The Met. “We’re honoured that so many people decided to spend their time with us this year.”
The Museum is New York City’s most visited tourist attraction for both domestic and international audiences. International visitors accounted for 37 percent of the Museum’s visitors in the last fiscal year. Local New Yorkers also love The Met: nearly a third of the Museum’s visitors came from the five boroughs of New York City. A further twelve percent came from the tri-state area outside the City.
An exciting range of exhibitions undoubtedly contributes to its success. Jerusalem 1000–1400: Every People Under Heaven and Max Beckmann in New York each brought over 200,000 visitors. Age of Empires: Chinese Art of the Qin and Han Dynasties (221 B.C.–A.D. 220) had attracted nearly 300,000 visitors as of June 30 (the exhibition closed on July 16). Rei Kawakubo/Comme des Garçons: Art of the In-Between brought in over 275,000 visitors up to June 30, since opening on May 4.
The Met is also forging ahead with its digital visitorship.
Digital visitorship is also soaring. The Met’s website (metmuseum.org) ended the fiscal year with 31 million visits, of which over a third were international. The pages of The Met’s online collection and the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History drew the most visits (8.3 million and 10.4 million respectively).
There was also a huge 128 percent increase in downloads. The Met’s new Open Access policy had made over 375,000 online collection images available for free and unrestricted use. This resulted in 94,000 downloads since the policy was announced in early February.
The Met has also gained a bunch of accolades. It was named Travellers’ Choice for Best Museum in the World by TripAdvisor. The Met Fifth Avenue, The Met Breuer, and The Met Cloisters individually won TripAdvisor Certificates of Excellence.
