Museum attendance dips 3 percent in 2010

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Attendance was down at Chicago’s major museums and zoos, but the institutions were still a big draw with 14.4 million people visiting them in 2010.

The number of 2010 visitors is 3 percent below the 14.8 million in 2009.

The slight decline was partially due to the big year the Art Institute of Chicago had in 2009, when its Modern Wing opened, said Gary T. Johnson, president of the Chicago History Museum and the Museums in the Park group representing 10 of the 14 cultural institutions whose numbers were counted in Tuesday’s report.

Despite the attendance drop, the Art Institute continued to lead local museums in the number of visitors with 1.6 million in 2010. In 2009, the museum saw more than 1.8 million.

School and youth group visits were up 5 percent at the 14 destinations counted. The weak economy played a role in bringing people in on free or reduced admission days, Johnson said.

“All of our free day attendance is going up,” he said.

Animals continued to be a big draw. Lincoln Park Zoo, which never charges admission, saw an estimated 3 million visitors in 2010. They were followed by the Brookfield Zoo at 2.3 million and the John G. Shedd Aquarium at 2 million, the third year the Shedd topped the 2 million visitor mark.

Other museums exceeding the million-visitor mark were The Field Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry. Continuing its rise toward 1 million visitors is the Chicago Botanic Garden, which hosted more than 900,000 in 2010. The Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum counted 2010 as their most-visited year with 257,000 coming to the Lincoln Park museum.