A place for the people: Albuquerque Museum sees attendance numbers rise in first-half of FY24

Planning is key for the staff at the Albuquerque Museum.

It can take months or even years to plan for exhibits that fall in line with the mission of the museum, like “Coast to Coast to Coast: Indigenous Art from the McMichael Canadian Art Collection” which runs through April 21.

So far this fiscal year, the museum is seeing its attendance number rise.

During fiscal year 2023, which ended on June 30, the museum had a total of 120,409 visitors.

From July 1 through Dec. 31, the museum has seen 77,538 visitors.

Andrew Connors, museum director, said the increase is due in part to “O’Keeffe and Moore” which ran from Sept. 30 through Dec. 31.

The exhibit, which opened at the San Diego Museum of Art before traveling to Albuquerque, looked at the work and workshops of Georgia O’Keeffe and sculptor Henry Moore.

Connors says the O’Keeffe Museum was working with the San Diego Museum of art on the exhibit and wanted to host it, but didn’t have enough room.

“Cody Hartley, the O’Keeffe director, asked if we would consider bringing the show to Albuquerque,” Connors says. “That’s an unusual way for us to work. Usually we’re not asked. Usually the organizer of the traveling exhibit contacts us to figure out what we got.”

The Albuquerque Museum usually hosts about three traveling exhibits per year, though they have hosted as many as seven traveling exhibits in one year.

There are eight gallery spaces, with one reserved for photo archives.

One of the gallery spaces is the outdoor sculpture garden, where there are dozens of pieces on display to the public.

Connors is elated to see the increase in attendance.

“What really makes me happy, in addition to those numbers, is that we had 17,500 students in tour groups come to the Albuquerque Museum and Casa San Ysidro,” Connors says. “That’s just really meaningful. All the students coming with an organized group have free admission. That’s made possible through our foundation.”

The museum opened as the Museum of Albuquerque in 1967, operating out of a temporary location in the recently-vacated Old Albuquerque Municipal Airport Building.

In 1975, voters approved a bond issue to fund construction of a new, permanent location on the site of a former truck terminal in Old Town.

The building was designed by local architect Antoine Predock and opened in 1979.

The museum’s mission is dedicated to preserving the art of the American Southwest and the history of Albuquerque and the Middle Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico.

The museum also contributes significantly to the cultural and educational programs in the city of Albuquerque.

It features art of the Southwest and its global influences, as well as 400 years of Albuquerque history with permanent installations and special exhibitions of national and international origin.

“The work we do examines our history in the Southwest,” Connors says. “The second major agenda is to bring to New Mexico the sorts of things that many New Mexicans would never have the possibility of seeing otherwise. With a state that has such poverty and limited resources, we think it’s very important for people to understand a broader world. We try to introduce the experience of culture and history.”

Connors says the biggest challenge for the museum is convincing exhibition organizers to come to a community as small as ours.

“The current exhibit is organized by a museum in Canada and they wanted to introduce their collection of Indigenous art,” Connors says. “Most organizers want to go to the high density areas. They overlook Albuquerque all the time. We have to plead our case to get exhibitions here.”

Connors says attendance at the museum is 80% New Mexicans.

“We get to serve a local audience,” he says.

Connors is also proud that the museum is able to offer free admission hours multiple times a week.

From 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Sunday, the admission is free. Then on the first Wednesday of the month, admission is free all day. The third Thursday from 5-8:30 p.m., admission is free.

At Casa San Ysidro in Corrales, which the museum also runs, admission is free the second Saturday of each month.

Albuquerque Museum attendance continues to grow

“The City Council has allowed us to keep the admission prices modest based on the fact that a lot of our community can’t afford it,” Connors says. “There are at least 27 free museum hours a month.”

The Albuquerque Museum staff also coordinates programming outside the museum

The Art Matters program has worked with 2,600 youths this year. The program is developed to bring art and creative problem-solving to teens who might otherwise have no access to art education and programming.

“Every summer we do a five-day summer program and students come from unhoused families,” Connors says. “We feed them meals and they go into the museum and participate in activities. For the students that come with a tour, they get a pass to bring their families back for free. In turn, that student becomes the museum expert with their family. It’s a great thing.”