Norton
Simon
Museum
Attachment A
Impact Report of the Norton Simon Museum
2022-2023 (July 1, 2022 -June 30, 2023)
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Summary of Key Statistics:
Annual Attendance
Pre-COVID = 170,000 visitors (Pasadena Residents = 23,800, or 14%) 2022-2023 = 128,000 visitors (Pasadena Residents = 17,920, or 14%) 2023-2024 = 135,000* visitors (Pasadena Residents = 18,900, or 14%) * = Projected Based on our most recent visitor survey in 2019, approximately 13% of our visitors during our regular operating hours are Pasadena residents (second to Los Angeles at 14.5%). Factoring in school tours provided during non-public hours, approximately 14% of all visitors are Pasadena residents.
Breakdown of 2022-2023 Attendance
Adults (paid) = 48,000
Students (free) = 26,000
Seniors (paid) = 22,250
Members (paid membership) = 13,000
Children (18 and younger) (free) = 10,000 (normal operating hours) Children (school tours) (free) = 2,300 (public and non-public hours) Pasadena Police and Fire Department employees (plus one guest), active military members (and family members) and Museum guests (all free) = 3,000 EBT/Golden State Advantage Card (plus one guest) (free) = 1,400 Other, including museum staff members throughout the world (free) = 2,050 Total free admission = 44,750 (35% of total attendance) •
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Image Credits Above Left to Right: Installation photo of Picasso Ingres: Face to Face, a collaboration with the National Gallery, London (in Pasadena from Oct 21,2022-1an 30, 2023); Visitors participating in our expansive free public program An fven/ng/n Focus: Art & the Essence of Food (April 18, 2023); Visitors at our annual Garden Party (June 10,2023) Free School Tours (5th-12th grade students) for the 10-Year Period 7/1/2009-6/30/2019 (Pre-Pandemic, excluding self-guided school tours)
Attendance = 102,000 students (from Pasadena schools = 16,000, or 15.7%) 12,000 of total (11.8%) from PUSD schools
4,000 of total (3.9%) from other Pasadena schools
Free School Tours Conducted by the Museum (5th-12th grade students) for the 2022-2023 Year • Museum conducted 70 free school tours
Attendance = 2,300 students (Pasadena students = 1,150 (50%), of which 1,070 were PUSD fifth graders participating in the My Masterpieces program Free Self-Guided Tours (K-College) for the 2022-2023 Year (Led by a school's teacher that is scheduled with the Museum's Education Department) Attendance = 2,200+ students (308, or 14%, from Pasadena schools) Museum Members
Current Museum Members = 4,211, of which 1,128 (26.8%) Member households are in Pasadena
Serving our Community
The Norton Simon Museum is committed to providing access to our exceptional art collections and to meaningful educational opportunities for all members of our community: children and their families, students and teachers, lifelong learners and people with different abilities. The Museum's programs are designed to foster the imagination and build a deep understanding of human creativity and expression. They center on the Museum's art collections, which range from classical Indian and Southeast Asian sculpture, to European painting, sculpture and prints from the early Renaissance through the early 20th century, to postwar American painting, sculpture and photography.
Some of the ways we serve Pasadena residents include:
Conducting Free PUSD & My Masterpieces School Tours
During the academic years of 2009 through 2019, the Museum served nearly 102,000 5th-12th grade students from throughout Southern California through our free school tour program. Of these, approximately 16,000 (15.7%) were from Pasadena schools, including nearly 12,000 (11.8%) 2 PUSD students. After pausing our school tour program during our pandemic-related closure, we provided a virtual school tour program for the 2021-22 academic year that served 1,200 PUSD students. In fall 2022 we began offering in-person school visits, although we continued to follow Covid-related protocols including group size.
For our participation in the PUSD My Masterpieces program, the Museum's Education staff work directly with Karen Anderson, PUSD's Arts & Enrichment Coordinator/GATE Specialist. For PUSD school visits outside of the My Masterpieces program, teachers reach out to us directly, filling out a request form on our website and then coordinating their visit with our Education staff.
Highlights for the 2022-23 academic year include:
The Museum conducted 70 free school tours reaching approximately 2,300 students in 5th- 12th grade students from throughout Southern California. Of these, approximately 1,150 (50%) were from Pasadena schools and 1,070 (46%) were PUSD fifth graders participating in the My Masterpieces program (38 tours for 14 schools). Led by paid Museum educators with backgrounds in art history, and based on a curriculum designed by Museum staff in consultation with PUSD, these tours offer students and teachers the opportunity for lively discussion and engagement around important works of art, artistic styles and processes, and historical periods.
The Museum welcomed approximately 2,200+ students (K-college) in our self-guided tour program (tours led by a school's teacher that are scheduled through the Museum's Education Department), 308 (14%) of whom were from Pasadena schools.
The Museum hosted 4 virtual school tours reaching 145 students (we continue to offer virtual school tours for schools unable to visit in-person).
Providing Access to the Arts
Serving the Pasadena community is one of the primary focuses of the Museum's education and external affairs program. The diversity of the population and extraordinary range of cultural and educational institutions make Pasadena an ideal city for expanding and engaging with our audiences. The Museum offers free, onsite car and bicycle parking, and is accessible from several Pasadena Transit and Metro bus lines that stop directly in front of our site.
During the 2022-23 year, we hosted approximately 86 free public events that reached some 4,000 participants. These events included lectures with curators and scholars invited to speak on a particular topic, performances, educator-led talks and tours, educator- and teaching-artist-led art 3 classes and workshops for elementary, middle school, high school students and adults, as well as focus nights that celebrate a special exhibition, featuring spotlight talks, art-making activities for all ages and live music.
Some of the ways that we strive to provide an accessible environment include:
Pasadena's Children and Youth
Admission for all children 18 and younger is always free and all of our children and youth programs are free. In 2022-23 we welcomed nearly 10,000 children during our regular hours of operation.
Examples of our free programming includes monthly "Stories in the Afternoon" for toddlers and preschoolers, bimonthly "Family Days" for children 12 and younger, quarterly "Young Creatives" and "Teen Arts" programs for Middle and High School students, and our all-ages programs including our "Evening in Focus" events, the annual "Garden Party" and our summer "Chess in the Garden" series.
We organize a summer program at local Pasadena libraries where our educators lead artmaking workshops one afternoon, then invite the children and their families to the Museum on a separate day for free tours. In summer 2023, this was held at the La Pintoresca branch.
The Museum provides membership cards to the My Masterpieces program for families of students served in the program to use for their own visits.
Free admission program
We understand that admission fees can present a barrier to many, including Pasadena residents. As such, the Museum has an expansive free admission policy, including:
Free admission for all students with ID. In 2022-23 we welcomed nearly 26,000 students during our regular hours of operation (excludes educator-led school tours).
As stated above, we offer free admission for all children 18 and younger. In 2022-23 we welcomed nearly 10,000 children during our regular hours of operation (excludes educator- led school tours).
Free First Friday hours for all on the first Friday of the month from 4:00-7:00 p.m. (reinstated in July 2023 after a pandemic-era pause). In 2018-19 (most recent full year of program) we welcomed 6,613 visitors for our Free First Friday program. •
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As stated above, we provide free admission for students participating in our educator-led school tours program. In 2022-23 we welcomed approximately 2,300 students in our school tours program.
Free admission for all Pasadena Police and Fire Department employees (plus guest), all active military members (plus family members), and Museum guests (an estimated 3,000 in 2022-23).
Free admission for all holders of the EBT/Golden State Advantage Card, plus one guest. In 2022-23 we welcomed nearly 1,400 EBT card holders.
Free admission for staff from museums throughout the world, including at Pasadena's USC Pacific Asia Museum, the Pasadena Museum of History, the Armory and the Gamble House.
Pasadena's Seniors
Seniors receive a reduced admission rate of $15 (adult admission is $20). In 2022-23 we welcomed nearly 22,250 seniors.
• Low-income seniors who have a Golden State Advantage card receive free admission.
We have provided complimentary group admission for senior center visits with low-income seniors who do not have the Golden State Advantage card.
The Museum's curatorial staff have presented lectures and talks at Pasadena Senior Center prior to the Covid pandemic.
Visitors with Disabilities
The Museum is committed to serving all visitors. Our educators and visitor services staff participate in annual trainings from experts in inclusion and access. Recent training sessions have been led by the Braille Institute, the Alzheimer's Association and EasterSeals. In addition to training our staff:
We offer specialized, free tours and programs to visitors with developmental and learning disabilities and those on the autism spectrum; visitors who are blind or partially sighted; and visitors who are deaf or have hearing loss.
We provide free admission to caretakers of people with disabilities.
We have invested in making our website accessible, including open captioning and transcripts on our videos and audio, a years-long initiative to provide alt-text on all of the artworks on our site, and ensuring our web design is accessible.
We have open captioning and transcripts for all our onsite digital content, including our orientation video screened daily in the theater, and our free audio tour of the collection.
We provide wheelchairs for visitors upon request.
5 We provide assisted listening devices for visitors who are deaf or hard of hearing that can be used in the theater during special programs or during weekly tours.
We provide free ASL interpretation for all programs and events with advance request.
Looking Ahead:
Collaboration with California Institute of Technology (Caltech) The Norton Simon Museum is collaborating with Caltech on a program that will enable faculty and students of their Visual Culture minor to work closely with the collections and staff of the Norton Simon Museum as part of their standard curriculum and for specialized research. We hope to host seminar-style courses in the galleries, with the potential to build towards jointly organized programming, such as digital exhibitions, lectures or film series. In fall 2024 our two organizations are co-presenting a 2-day symposium titled Plugged In: Art and Electric Light that will bring scholars from around the country to Pasadena to participate in discussions that explore the rich intersections between art and electric light. Our conservator is also in conversation with Katherine Faber about more technical collaborations, that might involve conducting analysis on Simon objects.
Participation in ArtNight Pasadena
The Norton Simon Museum was one of the founding organizations of ArtNight Pasadena. After the pandemic, with limited hours and staffing challenges, we had to pause our participation. We are pleased to note that the Museum will open its doors and welcome guests for the upcoming ArtNight on March 8, 2024.
Celebrating our 50th Anniversary in 2025
The year 2025 will mark the Norton Simon Museum's 50th anniversary. As such, we are planning a year-tong celebration with special exhibitions, community events and programs, a new publication, a new anniversary-focused micro-website, a robust marketing and communications plan, and so much more. Our goats for this celebration are to reenergize the Museum's identity and spotlight our many special qualities and initiatives.
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