Attendance is up 10 per cent at the Canadian Museum of Nature, and officials are giving glowing creatures much of the credit.
Through the first nine months of the current fiscal year, which runs from April 1, 2014, to March 31, 2015, the McLeod Street museum has attracted 317,288 visitors – nearly 29,000 more than during the same period the previous year.
The museum is on pace to draw well over 400,000 visitors for the full year. The rebound is welcome; after spiking to 518,000 in 2010-11 – when the museum reopened after a $216-million renovation – attendance fell to 374,255 in 2012-13 and rose only marginally in 2013-14.
Figures show higher attendance every month but one between April and December. Most notably, it jumped by nearly 24 per cent in July, when nearly 60,000 people swarmed the museum.
“Obviously, it’s positive for us to see strong attendance numbers,” said John Swettenham, the museum’s director of marketing and media relations. “It indicates that we’re appealing to the customer base.”
Swettenham credited Creatures of Light, a major exhibition featuring organisms that produce their own light, for boosting summer attendance. “We had a great show, and I think that attracted a lot of folks,” he said.
The museum likely also benefited from the relative absence of blockbuster shows at other national museums, Swettenham suggested.
The Canadian Museum of History’s big summer show was on the Empress of Ireland, which sunk in the St. Lawrence River in 1914 with heavy loss of life. The National Galley of Canada’s show on French illustrator and artist Gustav Doré drew just 47,361 visitors – second lowest in the gallery’s history.
“I think Creatures of Light probably had broader appeal,” Swettenham said. As well, last summer’s lousy weather may have prompted more people to visit the museum, he acknowledged.
The attendance gain was particularly gratifying given that the museum raised its general admission price by 50 cents last April. It plans to do so again this April.
It has also begun charging additional fees for many special exhibitions. For example, adults paid a surcharge of $8 to see Creatures of Light and children paid an extra $6.
The museum’s success is in stark contrast to the long-term decline in attendance causing consternation at the National Gallery. For the second straight year, attendance is projected to fall below 300,000. The gallery routinely attracted well over 500,000 visitors a year in the 1990s, before it started charging admission fees.
Attendance is up about 10 per cent this year at the Canadian War Museum and down about four per cent at the Canadian Museum of History, which is undergoing major renovations as part of its rebranding from the Canadian Museum of Civilization.
The nature museum hopes next summer’s blockbuster exhibition will maintain its attendance momentum. Called Animal Inside Out and created by Body Worlds, the exhibition uses a process called plastination to show what lies beneath the skin of more than 100 animal specimens, from birds to giraffes. “It’s kind of like an anatomy lesson,” Swettenham says.
It’s the first time a Body Worlds show will be presented in Ottawa, but its exhibitions elsewhere have attracted large audiences. The museum intends to charge adults an additional $10 for admission to Animal Inside Out. Even so, said Swettenham, “I still think the museums are good value.”
The museum has also generated buzz and boosted attendance with some of its new programming. Nature Nocturne, its monthly Friday night dance parties – “parties so cool, they’re hot,” the museum’s website boasts – has been a great success.
“That adds to our attendance numbers because those folks, in addition to coming and dancing in the museum, they’re also visiting,” Swettenham said.
The museum will face stiffer competition next summer. A huge exhibition on Ancient Greece opens in June at the Museum of History and the National Gallery will present a retrospective featuring popular Canadian artist Alex Colville.
But Swettenham sees a win-win. “With this number of big shows coming to Ottawa next summer, we should be drawing a lot of tourists to the city,” he said. That should increase attendance for all museums and boost the local economy.
