Displaying items by tag: schedule

A seven-day schedule implemented last year at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art brought a 7% increase in attendance at the former but no change at the latter, Crain’s New York reported. MoMA started admitting visitors on Tuesdays beginning May 1, 2013; the Met’s transition from six to seven days took place two months later, in July.

A spokesman for the Met told Crain’s that the flat figures were caused by an “unusually harsh winter” along with ongoing construction, begun in late 2013, on the museum’s entrance plaza.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is now open seven days a week for the first time in over 40 years. The schedule shift occurred on Monday July 1, 2013 following the official announcement, which was made by the Met’s director and CEO, Thomas Campbell, on March 28. Opening hours will also be moved from 9:30AM to 10AM.

The goal of the increased hours of operation is to make the museum more accessible to patrons. A record 6.28 million people visited the Met last year and museum officials hope to maintain the institution’s ongoing success.

The changes also apply to the Cloisters, the Met’s museum of medieval art and architecture located in Fort Tryon Park in northern Manhattan.  

The iconic colorful metal buttons that have served at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s admission tickets since 1971 are no more. Due to the rising cost of the tin-plate pins, the museum will employ a new paper ticket system that will include detachable stickers, which will serve as proof of admission. The buttons will be discontinued on Monday, July 1, the same day that the Met will switch to a seven-day-a-week schedule. It was previously closed on Mondays.

The Met’s admission buttons have become a symbol of New York City culture and a popular souvenir for tourists. Their badge’s most recent iteration features an “M” appropriated from a 16^th century woodcut based on a Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) drawing. After the Met introduced their unique admission tokens over 40 years ago, a number of institutions followed suit and they are now commonplace in museums around the world.

In addition to bringing production costs down from 3 cents per button to 1 cent per paper ticket, the new system will also be more environmentally friendly.

Starting today, May 1, 2013, the Museum of Modern Art in New York will be open seven days a week. The Metropolitan Museum of Art made a similar announcement in March and will implement their week-round schedule in July.

After considerable renovations in 2004, MoMA has seen its annual visitor numbers climb from 1.5 million to 3 million. The seven-day-a-week schedule will help accommodate the museum’s growing audience. MoMA, which is located in Midtown Manhattan, is home to one of the most renowned collections of modern art including works by Paul Gauguin (1848-1903), Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), Jackson Pollock (1912-1956), Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009), and Pablo Picasso (1881-1973).

MoMA has been closed on Tuesdays since 1975, when officials introduced the tactic to cut back on museum spending. Prior to that, the museum had been open seven days a week since it’s founding in 1929.