Program areas at Museum of Fine Arts
Education programs: the Museum maintains an ongoing series of education programs and activities in order to further the mission of the Museum and provide educational opportunities in art. Education programs cover a wide spectrum of topics and include studio art classes and workshops for children, teens and adults, lectures, films, concerts, a variety of other courses, free demonstrations and talks, free workshops for educators, school group tours, partnerships with local area schools, after-school programs and community groups to engage youth in Arts and programs for family visits to the Museum.
Enterprise: the Museum's retail operations offers a wide variety of merchandise related to the Museum's collections and special exhibitions, which contribute importantly to the achievement of the Museum's exempt educational purpose by making works of art familiar to a broader segment of the public. Offerings at shop include art books, posters, cards, glass, textiles, jewelry and sculpture. Merchandise is for sale in the physical shops or through retail's web-based outlet.the Museum is exempt as an educational organization on the basis of its ownership, maintenance, and exhibition for public viewing of works of art. The sales of such items contributes importantly to the achievement of the Museum's exempt educational purposes by stimulating and enhancing public awareness, interest, and appreciation of art. Moreover, a broader segment of the public may be encouraged to visit the Museum itself to share in its educational functions and programs as a result of seeing the items sold.
Exhibitions: with a collection of nearly 500,000 objects, the Museum owns some of the rare and important artistic treasures in the world. Such a collection enables the Museum to present many special exhibitions with a balance between scholarly programs and those with broad public appeal. During fiscal year 2022, the Museum presented 18 exhibitions. Some highlights include: new light: encounters and connections; paper stories, layered dreams; fabric of nation; helina metaferuca: generations; tattoos in japanese prints; from paris to hollywood: claudette colbert's starfish brooch; dawoud bey: bight coming tenderly; real photo postcards: pictures from a changing nation; weng family collection of chinese painting: art rocks; turner's modern world; philip guston now; stories artists tell: art of the americas, the 20th century; touching roots: black ancestral legacies in the americas; community Arts initiative: empowered faces; the banner project: diedrick brackens; incomparable impressionism from the mfa at mfa houston; the heroes chronicles of the warriors: japanese swords x ukiyo-e at mori Arts center gallery in tokyo, japan and the niigata bandaijima art Museum in niigata, japan.
Operating support:operating support consists of all other areas of the Museum. Including protective services, facilities and other areas which support the operations of the Museum and its mission.
Parking facilities:the Museum owns a parking garage and has two open-air parking lots. All of these facilities are open to members and visitors to the Museum. The operation of adjacent parking lots by the Museum, in areas of insufficient parking spaces for the use of its visitors, contributes importantly to the Museum's exempt purpose by encouraging visitation and longer periods viewing of its collections, and special exhibitions. Any profits from the fee charged for the use of the lot is placed in the general operating fund.
Food services:the Museum is organized and operated as an art Museum. The eating facilities are open to the Museum staff, employees, and members of the public visiting the Museum and are of a size commensurate with accommodation of these special groups of patrons.
Membership & visitors:over 632,000 visitors attended the Museum during fiscal year 2022. During the fiscal year 2022, there were several community days during which admission charges were waived. The Museum has over 40,000 active member households. There are 3 levels of annual membership with fees ranging from $90 to $300. Each category offers a wide variety of privileges, such as free admission, publications, reciprocal member benefits at other major art museums around the u.s. and special events.
Other misc. Program services