Museum Hours: Time For A Change

No.

Have you go a comment from the AGO on this yet?

matthew_teitelbaum@ago.net

bbatw

These remarks are right on target! As a retail consultant (recently for the Missouri Botanical Garden), I've long wondered at the tendency of non-profits ot to be open (or to be open, but not properly staffed) when people would like to visit. That's typically evenings and weekends, as your remarks make clear. Sometimes I think museum shops are closed during prime shopping hours because they want to support the non-profit part of the institutions' missions!

In fact, you are generous, in my opinion, naming to an honor role institutions open a couple of nights until 7 or 8. What would people think of a shopping mall that was only open two evenings a week?

That's good -- but is 7 p.m. late enough?

Come to the Smithsonian American Art Museum [SAAM] and the National Portrait Gallery 364 evenings a year!
When the museums reopened in the renewed and renamed Reynolds Center for American Art they wisely changed their hours to 11:30 am to 7 pm.

The Cleveland Museum of Art is open two nights a week until 9 p.m.

Hours are:
Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, Sundays 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
Wednesdays, Fridays 10:00 a.m. –9:00 p.m.
Closed Mondays

Kansas City belongs on that Honor Role!

Hours & Admission
The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art
http://www.nelson-atkins.org/welcome/Hours.cfm
4525 Oak Street
Kansas City, Missouri 64111-1873
816.751.1ART

General Public Hours:
Wed, 10 a.m.—4 p.m.
Thurs, Fri, 10 a.m.—9 p.m.
Sat, 10 a.m.—5 p.m.
Sun, Noon—5 p.m.

Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art
http://www.kemperart.org/general/index.asp
4420 Warwick Blvd.
Kansas City, MO 64111
Tues.–Thurs. 10 a.m.–4 p.m.
Fri.–Sat. 10 a.m.–9 p.m.
Sun 11 a.m.–5 p.m.
Closed Mondays

Kemper at the Crossroads
33 W. 19th St.
Kansas City, MO 64108
Fri. noon–8 p.m.
Sat. noon–6 p.m.
Closed Sunday–Thursday

Museums here in Atlanta do fairly well in this regard: the High is open every Thursday until 8 (w/admission half-price 4 to 8), and one Friday a month until 10 for the very popular Friday Jazz series. I wish they'd stay open till 7 or 8 every Friday as well.

The Carlos is open Tues. - Sun. until 6pm. They tried being open later one night a week and there weren't many takers.

The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center is open until 8 every Thursday, and admission is free all day Thursdays.

When the Henry Art Gallery reduced hours this summer, cutting Tuesdays, and opening Wednesdays only for scheduled group tours, we added an extra open evening. The Henry is open until 9 every Thursday and Friday, plus, the first Thursday of each month is free - and admission each Friday evening is two-for-one from 5-9 PM.

Betsey Brock
Associate Director for Communications and Outreach

Thanks for writing, Brian -- I did look at many smaller institutions, though not yours, and found that most of them were not open in the evenings. I'm glad to hear that the Academy Art Museum is serving its audiences well.

Just wanted to add that the Indianapolis Museum of Art is open until 9 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays.

Dear Ms. Dobrzynski,

Look at the size of the museums you survey. They are among the nation's largest. Is am not certain that is the best cross section for accuracy among all institutions. At the Academy Art Museum in Easton, MD, we are open late three evenings: Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. An institution doesn't have to be among the largest to serve its audience.

Best wishes,

Brian Young
Curator