(New York, July 10, 2019)—The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced today that it welcomed more than 7 million visitors to its three locations—The Met Fifth Avenue, The Met Cloisters, and The Met Breuer—in the fiscal year that ended on June 30 (FY19). The Museum's renowned collection and a range of exhibitions and programs drew audiences throughout the year; standout exhibitions included a seminal display of works by Eugène Delacroix; a groundbreaking presentation of art from medieval Armenia; a timely exploration of art and culture from the ancient Middle East, and two shows that are still on view—Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll, a celebration of the artistry of the iconic instruments of rock and roll, and Camp: Notes on Fashion, an exploration of the exuberant nature of the camp aesthetic through fashion.
"The Met is both a global destination and a hometown Museum, and we're honored to have welcomed so many visitors this past year from near and far," said Daniel H. Weiss, President and CEO of the Museum. "Our mission is to connect people with the art of all times and cultures, and it is inspiring to see the Museum resonating with such a large audience." Continually one of New York City's most visited tourist attractions for domestic and international audiences, The Met draws a wide range of visitors. In the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2019, international tourists accounted for 28% of the Museum's visitors. Local visitors from the five boroughs of New York City made up 35% of the overall total, and 16% were from New York's tristate area. "The Met's collection, exhibitions, and programs offer powerful ways to experience more than five millennia of art," said Max Hollein, Director of the Museum. "Every day, people in our galleries are reconnecting with the familiar, encountering the new, and appreciating some of the greatest examples of artistic excellence and cultural achievement in the world." FY19 is the third year in a row that the Museum drew over 7 million visitors. Fiscal year 2018's extraordinary attendance of 7.35 million was the result of a particularly exceptional year for The Met that included attendance for the exhibitions Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer(with 702,516 visitors) and David Hockney (with 363,877), and the first two months of Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination, which attracted a record 1,659,647 visitors to The Met Fifth Avenue and The Met Cloisters during its run from May 10 to October 8, 2018. FY19 is the first full fiscal year under the Museum's new admissions policy, and results show that The Met continues to draw consistently high visitation. ExhibitionsBesides Heavenly Bodies, another 2018 exhibition that contributed to the Museum's strong attendance in FY19 was The Roof Garden Commission: Huma Bhabha, We Come in Peace, which closed on October 8, 2018, with 383,714 visitors. The exhibitions that drew high numbers of visitors to the Museum in FY19 include Delacroix, which welcomed 346,259 from September 17, 2018 through January 6, 2019; and Armenia! which had 229,491 visitors from September 22, 2018 through January 13, 2019. Monumental Journey: The Daguerreotypes of Girault de Prangey (on view January 30–May 12, 2019) and The Tale of Genji: A Japanese Classic Illuminated (March 5–June 16, 2019) welcomed 117,858 and 214,050, respectively. As of June 30, Play It Loud: Instruments of Rock & Roll had brought in 334,162 visitors since it opened on April 8; The Roof Garden Commission: Alicja Kwade, ParaPivot, has had 166,924 visitors since it opened on April 16; and Camp: Notes on Fashion, has had 298,720 visitors since it opened on May 9. Exhibitions featuring The Met collection were also popular, with History Refused to Die: Highlights from the Souls Grown Deep Foundation Gift; African American Portraits: Photographs from the 1940s and 1950s; Art of Native America: The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection; In Praise of Painting: Dutch Masterpieces at The Met; Jewelry: The Body Transformed, and Epic Abstraction: Pollock to Herrera all bringing in large audiences. The Met Cloisters drew 325,326 visitors in FY19, a record for the location that was fueled by the attendance for Heavenly Bodies, and The Met Breuer brought in over 326,392 visitors to exhibitions such as Everything Is Connected: Art and Conspiracy; Odyssey: Jack Whitten Sculpture, 1963–2017; Lucio Fontana: On the Threshold; Siah Armajani: Follow This Line; and Obsession: Nudes by Klimt, Schiele, and Picasso from the Scofield Thayer Collection. Education and Public ProgramsThe Museum's robust offerings of education programs—from in-gallery drawing classes to auditorium lecture series—brought in hundreds of thousands of participants in FY19, including over 225,000 students and teachers, of which more than 90,000 were from New York City. The twice-yearly Teens Take The Met! event brought in over 6,000 teens from across the five boroughs, and daylong celebrations for families, such as the World Culture Festival and Lunar New Year Festival welcomed over 10,000 visitors. Online The Met's website (metmuseum.org) had more than 30 million visits in FY19. The Museum's social media reach is broad: its Twitter feed has more than 4.3 million followers; its Webby Award-winning Instagram has 3.2 million followers; and its Facebook account has more than 1.9 million. # # # About The Metropolitan Museum of ArtThe Met presents over 5,000 years of art from around the world for everyone to experience and enjoy. The Museum lives in three iconic sites in New York City—The Met Fifth Avenue, The Met Breuer, and The Met Cloisters. Millions of people also take part in The Met experience online. Since it was founded in 1870, The Met has always aspired to be more than a treasury of rare and beautiful objects. Every day, art comes alive in the Museum's galleries and through its exhibitions and events, revealing both new ideas and unexpected connections across time and across cultures. ###
July 10, 2019