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 2020, the Museum presented over 20 exhibitions. Some highlights include: ancient nubia now; lucian freud: self-portraits; reimagining home photographs by bahman jalali and gohar sashti; viewpoints photographs from the howard greenberg collection; kay nielsen's enchanted vision the kendra and allan daniel collection; mark believe; hyman bloom: matters of life and death; mural: jackson pollock/katharina grosse; community Arts initiative: mindful mandalas; collecting stories: a mid-century experiment; etc.

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. The facilities are accessible from the Museum's galleries and other public areas but not directly accessible from the street. The patronage of the eating facilities by the general public is not directly solicited nor are the facilities contemplated or designed to serve as a public restaurant but merely to serve the exempt purposes of the Museum. This allows visitors to devote more time to the Museum's educational exhibits, and enhances efficient Museum operation by enabling staff to remain on-site throughout the day. The operating of the eating facilities within the Museum premises helps to attract visitors to the Museum exhibits. As there are places of refreshment in the Museum, visitors are able to spend a greater portion of their time and attention to the Museum's collection, exhibits and other educational facilities. The Museum creates an education program for its participants, focusing on an exhibit, lecture or tour for private and corporate functions.

Membership & visitors:over 1,352,000 visitors attended the Museum during fiscal year 2019. During the fiscal year 2019, there were more than ten community days during which admission charges were waived, and the Museum has free admission "pay as you wish" periods each wednesday evening. The Museum has over 70,000 active member households. There are 8 levels of annual membership with fees ranging from $75 to $3,000. 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