Harvard's Museums Prosper While Boston's Slump

Greek coins and medieval triptychs might not match the allure of Museum of Fine Arts-Boston's "blockbuster" exhibitions, but Harvard's art museums do have one thing that many area museums lack: a steady and increasing flow of visitors.

Faced with a 6 percent decline in museum attendance over the past two years, Boston has just scrapped plans to build a city history museum. Harvard recently hired an architect to draw plans for a new University museum.

Many Boston city museums have been especially hard-hit by the attendance drop--even as tourism has surged almost 10 percent in the last year.

The Children's Museum attendance is down almost a third since 1998. The Isabella Stewart Gardner museum has seen admissions decline 15 percent. Even the MFA has lost 8 percent of its yearly visitors.

But this year, four percent more people attended the Harvard art museums than in 1999.

University administrators say the difference lies in Harvard's immunity to Big Dig construction complications and its approach to special exhibits. Since the Harvard museums do not focus on changing exhibitions, they do not fall prey to the drastic swings in attendance that plague many of Boston's museums.

"People come to the museums for the permanent collection and we offer families a steady experience," says James Cuno, the Moors Cabot Director of Museums at Harvard.

Harvard's admissions fees are also much lower than the rest of the city's museums. Wednesdays and Saturday mornings are free to the general public and Harvard faculty, students and employees never have to pay.

A new program initiated in August allows anyone with a Cambridge public library card to attend Harvard's museum for free. Meg Howland, director of the art museums public education and visitor services says a steadily increasing flow of community members have been taking advantage of the option.

"This will continue to bring more local people to visit and increase local visitation," Howland says.

Without the vast coffers a Harvard affiliation offers, public museums have been forced to scramble to generate attendance.

Museums are taking steps to combat decreased attendance, including everything from visitor surveys at the Children's Museum to a concentrated programming effort at the Gardner.

The MFA relies on its traveling exhibits pique visitors' enthusiasm.

"Last year, we had a blockbuster," says David Strauss, the MFA's public

relations coordinator. "Monet in the 20th century brought more people here than any exhibit around the world last year." Strauss says.

Strauss, however, denies any pressure from the public to generate successful and popular exhibits. "We don't need to be constantly feeding [the public]," he says. "Our shows pique interest in the permanent collection."

But Strauss admits the MFA's attendance drop is probably the result of a comparison with the unnaturally high attendance at the Monet exhibit.

At the Children's Museum--where the slump has hit hardest--a spokesperson claims construction, not content, is to fault for the drop.

The Big Dig project--which will sink the I-93 below ground by 2004--has created citywide congestion, especially around Fan Pier, very near the museum.

"Increasing construction, worsening traffic, the loss of several adjacent parking lots have been a constant source of frustration," a Children's Museum press release says.

Harvard's museums--secluded in Cambridge--remain unaffected by any construction and may be benefiting from the trouble created by the Big Dig.

"The ease of access makes [museum guests] regular visitors," Cuno says about Harvard museums.

And administrators say their museums take an approach to admissions that is entirely different from the city museums.

"We are not dependant upon attendance. It's a wonderful freedom that we have," says Meg Howland, Public Education and Visitor Services of the Harvard Art Museums Director

Harvard's exhibitions are not intended to be huge crowd-drawing sell-outs but rather the culmination of students' and professors' work.

"We are a different museum--for research and scholarship," Barone says. "The goal is not to draw thousands, but make people aware of the great things we have."