Which Us States Are Liable to Visit an Art Museum

The recovery begins. Or so nosotros hope. While 2021 was not a walk in the park—equally the pandemic spawned new variants while nations rolled out vaccination programmes to combat them—the museum sector began to welcome back growing numbers of visitors.

Overall, the number of people visiting museums grew, with the top 100 institutions in the world having a combined total of 71 million visitors compared with 54 one thousand thousand in 2020. This does not indicate a turn down in the severity of the pandemic—in that location were more than deaths globally in 2021 than in 2020—merely it does reflect the fact that museums were open up for more days as lockdown restrictions were lifted. Although there was a 31% rise in visitors year-on-twelvemonth, overall numbers were notwithstanding 69% lower than in 2019, when the superlative 100 museums had 230 million visitors.

The meridian 100 institutions in the globe had a combined total of 71 million visitors compared with 54 one thousand thousand in 2020

The Musée du Louvre in Paris is the perennial topper of this list, with an impressive 2.8 million visitors, a 5% increase on 2020 only still well beneath its pre-pandemic levels. In 2019 information technology was visited by 9.vi meg people. (For more on how institutions accept been faring in French republic, see French museums survived a drastic fall in tourism merely may confront uphill struggle as state support dries up).

In 2nd place is the State Russian Museum in St Petersburg with almost 2.3 1000000 visitors, up by 88% on its 2020 figure and only 6% lower than its pre-pandemic level. The museum, which houses a vast collection of Russian art, was but closed for 10 days due to Covid-19 restrictions compared to the 116 days the Louvre shut its doors. In pre-Covid times, the second spot on this listing would often be occupied by the National Museum of China in Beijing but several of the state-run museums in China could not provide usa with figures this twelvemonth, choosing to release them later in the year.

Four Russian museums make the top x list thanks in large function to being airtight for fewer days than the other museums in our top xx. I of the most successful museums in our survey was Moscow's Multimedia Art Museum, which made a near total recovery with two,242,000 visitors final year compared to 2,236,000 in 2019.

It is to exist expected that the Western world'south ostracisation of Russia, following Vladimir Putin'south invasion of Ukraine in February, will have some touch on on visitor numbers this year and mayhap for some years to come. However, international tourism to Russia in 2021 remained well below pre-pandemic levels, so the fall may not be as drastic equally information technology could be, but we volition have to look until next year'south survey to assess the situation.

Closures hit Europe hard

Of the more than 370 museums that were able to provide u.s.a. with data, 300 recorded the number of days they had had to shut due to Covid-19 restrictions. The total number of lost days from these institutions worldwide came in at more than than 31,000—the equivalent of 86 years' worth of museum visits! Of the 300 museums that had to shut at least i day due to restrictions in 2021, the average number of days airtight was 106 compared with an average of 145 in 2020.

From an analysis of our comparable information (200 museum sample), we constitute that 72% of museums had more than visitors in 2021 than in 2020, while 28% had fewer. Although the spread of museums faring worse in 2021 than 2020 was broad—with examples ranging from Austria and Commonwealth of australia to the US and the United Arab Emirates—the majority were in Europe, in countries like Germany, the Netherlands and the UK. Kingdom of the netherlands in particular was striking hard, with its museums being airtight for, on average, 150 days in 2021, while in the Britain information technology was 139 days and in Deutschland, 138.

Later on lengthy delays, the Humboldt Forum in Berlin finally opened last July and saw company numbers top 515,000 for 2021, thanks in part to its countdown ivory show Photo: Stefanie Loos

New kids on the block

In theory, a global pandemic would not seem to be the ideal time to open a new museum. Simply several organisations around the world went for information technology and were able to attract sizeable audiences. Berlin's long-awaited Humboldt Forum stormed into our top 150 list after finally opening on 20 July, post-obit delays due to construction issues and so the pandemic. Although the museum was only open for one-half of 2021, information technology racked up a very impressive 515,000 visitors, who flocked to its cultural events and inaugural exhibition almost ivory. In Paris, another long-awaited museum, the Bourse de Commerce-Pinault Collection, flung open its doors and welcomed almost 509,000 visitors into its distinctive rotunda.

The Jean Nouvel-designed Museum of Art Pudong in Shanghai, which is being brash by Tate on some of its early shows and operations, opened in July and had 450,000 visitors. Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, the M+ museum finally opened in November after many years of delays and was visited by a remarkable 371,000 people.

Grayson and Philippa Perry'southward free Art Guild exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery had more than 202,000 visitors and helped the Great britain museum to rebuild its attendance Photograph: Andrew Brooks

U.k. museums hold upwardly

In the Britain, the British Museum (BM) was the nigh visited art museum in the country, with 1.3 million visitors, a 4% increase on 2020 thanks to it being open more than days, just this was still well below the vi.2 million visitors information technology enjoyed in 2019. Its most popular exhibition was on the Roman Emperor Nero just a surprise hitting was a small display of recently discovered drawings by the Japanese artist Hokusai, famed for his Nifty Wave impress.

More than half of museums around the Britain had higher company figures in 2021 than in 2020. These ranged from Glasgow's Hunterian Museum (upwards by 82%) and Gateshead'southward Baltic Centre for Contemporary Fine art (57%) in the north, to Tate St Ives (43%) and Modern Art Oxford (5%) in the south. However, several institutions actually recorded lower visitor figures in 2021 than in 2020, most notably the National Gallery. Of the major London museums, it suffered the biggest fall in omnipresence, despite being airtight for the aforementioned number of days (136) every bit other stalwarts like the BM and the ii Tates. With 709,000 visitors last year, the National Gallery saw a drop of 41% compared with 2020 and 88% compared with 2019. A spokesperson for the gallery attributed the fall to a lack of major exhibitions throughout much of 2021, and the absence of international visitors (although all big London museums had to contend with the latter).

I of the most popular Uk exhibitions last twelvemonth in full numbers, rather than visitors per solar day, was Grayson's Art Social club at Manchester Art Gallery. The costless exhibition brought together works from the British potter Grayson Perry's Channel 4 television programme, which documented and encouraged artists—amateurs and professionals—across the Uk to make works during the national lockdown. More than than 202,000 people visited to see works by artists such as Antony Gormley and Chantal Joffe too equally celebrities including Noel Fielding and Joe Lycett.

An installation view of Automania at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, featuring a red 1946 Cisitalia 202 and light-green Volkswagen Beetle © 2021 MoMA. Photo: Robert Gerhardt

Audiences driven to U.s.a. museums

The superlative three most visited fine art museums in the US make for unsurprising reading, with New York'southward Metropolitan Museum of Art (almost ane.96 1000000 visitors to its Fifth Avenue site) followed by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC (i.vii million) and the Museum of Modern Art in New York (1.16 million). The three museums have comfortably topped the listing of most popular Usa fine art museums at least equally far back every bit 2007 (when our records for these specific figures brainstorm). All three showed significant uplifts in attendance compared with 2020, with 84%, 133% and 64% more visitors respectively. But all remain well beneath 2019 levels, with 68%, 58% and 42% fewer visitors.

The four big New York museums—the Met Fifth Artery, MoMA, Whitney Museum of American Fine art and Solomon R. Guggenheim—jointly welcomed 3.9 million visitors, nearly doubling the previous year's figure of 2.ii million as the museums were able to open for more than days compared with 2020. But the total is nevertheless well below the almost 11 million who visited all four in 2019. In absolute numbers, MoMA had the most popular show of the 4 large New York museums, with Automania, an exhibition nearly cars that drove more than than 475,000 people to the museum. Visitors taking a spin around the show were able to bask classic cars such as the Jaguar E-Type Roadster and the Volkswagen Beetle, as well equally works of fine art inspired by vehicles including Andy Warhol's Orangish Car Crash 14 Times (1963) and Judy Chicago'southward Flight Hood (1965/2011).

Meanwhile in California, museums that had undergone one of the longest US lockdowns in 2020—with well-nigh closed for well over 200 days—were able to welcome dorsum visitors with gusto. The Los Angeles Canton Museum of Art was the most pop fine art museum in the state, with almost 621,000 visitors. Having to only close for 77 days compared with 249 in 2020, meant that it saw a 197% rise in visitors—but this was still down 36% on its 2019 figures. The state'south 2nd most pop fine art museum was the Getty Center with 508,000 visitors, a 90% increase on 2020, followed by San Francisco's M. H. de Young Museum with 394,000 visitors (upwardly by 69%), no dubiety helped past its most popular show, which brought together the treasured possessions of Frida Kahlo. (For more on the recovery of American museums, come across Bouncing dorsum: the US museums that accept regained the visitors lost to Covid closures).

Melbourne bounces back

In Brazil, three of the four Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil outposts in São Paulo, Rio do Janeiro and Belo Horizonte—which in the by accept successfully attracted thousands of visitors a solar day to blockbuster shows on the likes of Salvador Dalí and Yayoi Kusama—saw their numbers drop by more than ninety% compared with pre-pandemic figures.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the southern hemisphere, the NGV International in Melbourne was the most popular museum in Australia, welcoming almost 802,000 visitors despite being based in the city that enforced the world's longest lockdown. Visitors were up past 26% compared with 2020, but notwithstanding downwards 67% on 2019. Across the Tasman Bounding main, the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa had 809,000 visitors, a 3% decrease on 2020 despite existence open for more days (a spokesperson put this down partly to iv months of daily visitor restrictions). The Australasian region has recently seen a huge spike in its coronavirus cases this yr after having largely contained the spread for two years. But with plans to reopen borders, company figures are very likely set to go up.

As many countries effort a transition into a "post-Covid" world, lifting restrictions in the hope that the disease that has plagued us for more than 2 years recedes, it will be interesting to see if adjacent year's survey points to renewed enthusiasm for museum-going or whether new habits have been formed. Until then, proceed rubber and carry on visiting those museums.

• Enquiry conducted past Justin Kamp and Alva Muris

• Museums in the Top 100 list marked with an asterisk (*) indicate institutions with more than one building. We have separated the venues to give a more authentic reflection of footfall. The institutions' boosted venues and combined totals are: Metropolitan Museum of Fine art, 5th Artery (Met Cloisters: 153,400; total for the Met: ii,111,400); NGV International (Ian Potter Centre: NGV Commonwealth of australia: 149,214; total for National Gallery of Victoria: 950,913); Getty Centre (Getty Villa: 259,256; total for both: 767,705); Gallery of Modern Art and Queensland Art Gallery (total for both: 840,553); M.H. de Young Museum (Legion of Honor: 170,078; full for Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco: 564,480); Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) shares a edifice with the National Portrait Gallery and therefore both accept the same visitor numbers (Renwick Gallery: 90,808; full SAAM and Renwick: 420,491); Upper Belvedere (Lower Belvedere closed in 2021; Dais 21: 39,101; full for Galerie Belvedere: 367,519).

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Source: https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/03/28/visitor-figures-2021-top-100-most-popular-art-museums-in-the-world

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