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Sunday, December 23, 2001
N.M. Museum Attendance in Flux
By David Steinberg
Journal Staff Writer
If the Sept. 11 attacks have triggered a drop in tourism nationwide, they have not put a big hurt on attendance at most of New Mexico's museums.
An informal survey of a number of museums statewide found mixed results in fall attendance. Some have reported reduced or flat visitor levels while others showed a rise.
The result seemed to support what the Tourism Association of New Mexico learned — that on the average museum attendance statewide was up a hair at 0.3 percent, said association executive director Debbie Scott.
Three of the biggest attendance drops were felt at Taos' Millicent Rogers Museum, the International UFO Museum and Research Center in Roswell and the Albuquerque Museum.
Albuquerque Museum director Jim Moore said the Sept. 11 events were probably one of a number of factors that caused the sharp reduction in attendance.
Moore also cited a new admission fee instituted in July, the slump in the economy, and exhibits that weren't the blockbusters that were presented the previous fall.
"So really there is a combination of things working against driving a high attendance," he said. "It's down equally among tourists and locals."
At Millicent Rogers, director Bill Ebie said "our September was 24 percent off and from the 11th through the end of the month it was off the edge."
But October and November picked up so that attendance at Millicent Rogers was somewhat higher over the same months in 2000 and "it looks like we're holding our own this month and we may end the year flat or 2 percent ahead" of last year, Ebie said.
He thinks that in the last few months tourists from the region have replaced many of those who fly in and rent cars.
Here are reports from other museums around New Mexico:
* Farmington Museum.
Museum director Julie Feldman said there has not been a dramatic drop in attendance other than the usual autumnal slide due to the end of the summer tourism season and school starting up again.
* New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum.
Director Mac R. Harris said the Las Cruces museum actually enjoyed an increase in attendance. He attributed the October attendance leap to the Cowboy Days weekend events.
* The Museum of New Mexico.
The state's Santa Fe-based museums saw an attendance drop in September over the same month last year, but October shot up 16 percent and November climbed 17 percent, said Barbara Hagood, the museum system's director of marketing and public relations.
Those increases have been driven by the "Carr, O'Keeffe, Kahlo: Places of Their Own" exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts and the Sebastiao Salgado photographic show, Hagood said.
However, attendance figures at individual state museums in Santa Fe varied.
* Roswell Museum and Art Center.
"It became totally dead after Sept. 11," said museum director Laurie Rufe.
But October saw a reversal in fortunes.
Rufe thinks the recent statewide museum campaign dubbed "Triumph of the Spirit" has been bringing more visitors back to her museum.
At the Roswell Museum, the campaign has taken the form of a "Wall of Words." It is a 12-foot-by-12-foot wall inside the education wing where people have placed offerings, written notes and pinned drawings.
* Hubbard Museum of the American West.
The Ruidoso Downs museum saw attendance drop slightly since the Sept. 11 attacks.
Jean Stoddard, the museum's acting director, said she did not have comparative monthly percentages, but figures showed visitations fluctuated week-to-week.
"We have been up since the first part of November, but down prior to that," Stoddard said.
* Silver City Museum.
The city-owned museum showed a slight drop in visitors in September, but slight increases in October and November.
"The year in general has been a bit slower than last year," said museum director Susan Berry.
* New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.
The Albuquerque-based state museum saw attendance increase in September, but then tail off in October and November.
But John Arnold, the museum's manager of visitor services, noted that attendance in all of 2000 was the highest it's been in 10 years.
Considering that, Arnold said, "we're holding our own this year."
* Georgia O'Keeffe Museum.
The private Santa Fe museum saw attendance drops in September and October, but visitations rebounded in November.