Economy “curse” hurts King Tut attendance at Dallas museum
When King Tut rolled into town in October, Bonnie Pitman, the new director of the Dallas Museum of Art, predicted that 1 million visitors would see the show, with ticket buyers traveling from hundreds, even thousands of miles away. But neither Ms. Pitman nor the international promoters of “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs” expected the financial crisis that has the global economy in a tailspin.
So how is the boy king doing?
The Tut exhibit has drawn more than 270,000 visitors during its first three months, Ms. Pitman said, with 90,000 of those being schoolchildren, who, like other large groups, purchased discounted tickets. With less than five months to go before the show closes May 17, the DMA would have to draw 730,000 to reach the 1 million mark. That would be an average of 146,000 a month, which exceeds its current average of around 90,000 a month.
Other U.S. cities have enjoyed phenomenal success with Tut: The show drew 937,613 to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art between June 16 and Nov. 20, 2005; 707,534 to the Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., between Dec. 15, 2005, and April 23, 2006; 1.04 million to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago between May 26, 2006, and Jan. 1, 2007; and 1.37 million to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia between Feb. 3 and Sept. 30, 2007, according to Arts and Exhibitions International, the show’s promoter.
Excerpted from an article by Michael Granberry for Dallas News
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