SPRINGFIELD — When Michelle Murphy, vice president of development and marketing at the Springfield Museums, walked the grounds of the museums Wednesday, she said she observed a wide range of age groups reflected in the visitors.
Murphy said the visitors included a group of mothers from Connecticut who planned a field trip with their children and a pair of adults who hadn’t been to the museums in years. When they heard about the museums’ “First Free Wednesdays” program on social media, they marked their calendars to be in attendance.
There was also “a lightness of spirit,” Murphy said, which “illustrates the idea of having no barrier to entry” of the museums.
Thanks to a $800,000 grant, the Springfield Museums are providing free admission on the first Wednesday of every month through the end of 2026.
Both the Springfield Museums and the Smith College Museum of Art are two recipients included on a list of 64 museums partnered with the Art Bridges Foundation Access for All grant. The foundation announced in October it was distributing $40 million to museums with the goal “to increase access to museums across America and foster engagement with local audiences” over the next three years.
Murphy said when the Springfield Museums were invited to apply for the grant, they decided that the best way to increase access for people in the local community was by addressing museum admissions.
“The gift of this grant removes the barrier for people who may want to join, but can’t because of expense,” Murphy said.
While the COVID-19 pandemic brought museum attendance to record lows, with many museums going digital during the height of the shelter-in-place orders, both institutions reported an uptick in attendance and excitement around their new initiatives.
While the Springfield Museums have been doing a lot of media outreach since they first received the grant, in mid-October, Murphy said when asking visitors how they heard about the initiative, many noted seeing the news on the museums’ social media outlets.
The Smith College Museum of Art has seen a similar resurgence in museum attendance. The museum was able to eliminate all admission fees starting last year as a gift from Smith College alumnae Jan Fullgraf Golann and Jane Timken, but the grant from the Art Bridges Foundation provided an additional $280,000 to help expand museum access through extended hours and additional community engagement.
Jessica Nicoll, the museum’s executive director and chief curator, said that beyond being able to extend the museum’s hours of operations, the grant has allowed them to “listen to make sure our exhibits are meeting community needs.”
Nicoll said that the return of the previously popular Second Fridays program at the museum — a designated time when museum admissions were waived — has now developed into “cultivating the museum as a social space.” The museum has also initiated a similar model for campus students on the first Thursdays of each month. On both of these days, the museum provides activities, food, art supplies, and even pays for guest speaker fees to engage with both the Smith community and the general public.
On average, the Smith College Museum of Art has an average of 32,000 visitors a year. During the height of the pandemic, its numbers dropped to 16,000 visitors. When tracking attendance on the college’s last fiscal year of July 1-June 30, Nicoll saw that numbers increased to 21,015 and is seeing an increase of about 40% since October. This would put attendance back around 30,000 to 40,000 visitors annually, which Nicoll said “feels more normal.”
Thanks to the Access for All grant, Nicoll said the museum will have the opportunity to try different things out and really listen and meet what the local community needs.
At the Springfield Museums, Murphy agrees and said the grant allows the museums to make an impact on a community level.
“It is fulfilling,” she said. “The grant is a great example of how an idea in investing in something that makes it easier for people really comes to fruition.”
