The New York Study of Public and Private Museums has been released. The study was a statewide census of all chartered museums in New York, conducted by Empire State Development, New York State Council on the Arts, New York State Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, New York State Department of State, and the New York State Education Department.
Wilkening Consulting, an audience research firm specializing in museums and the informal learning and cultural sectors, was contracted to conduct the research on behalf of Empire State Development.
The report found that there were nearly 1,200 chartered museums statewide which employed about 33,000 people. Those museums see about 47 million visitors annually and the median museum visitation statewide is approximately 2,000 visitors per year.
The New York City region, however, accounts for 67% of all museum visits statewide, and in that region the median visitation is 9x higher, at 18,000 per museum.
While most museums track overall attendance, many collect little information about who they serve: only 33% gather basic geographic data about visitors, and few record
demographics, K–12 participation rates, or reasons for visiting.
Sixty-five percent of museums hosted K–12 students on field trips in 2024, totaling an estimated 2.98 million students statewide. More than 50,000 museum volunteers donate more than two million hours combined each year.
Sixty percent of museums have no full-time employees, and a third rely exclusively on volunteers for all operations, including greeting visitors, assisting with collections care, and raising funds.
All-volunteer institutions are significantly less likely to have emergency or accessibility plans, documented collections, or the ability to track visitation.
While nearly all responding museums could describe the types of collections they hold, only 41% were able to report the size or scope of those collections. This limits the sector’s ability to assess preservation responsibility, risk exposure, insurance needs, conservation demands, and documentation gaps statewide.
Fifty-three percent of museums in New York State are history museums, including local history and historical societies; 10% of museums are art museums, and another 9% are historic house museums. Twenty-eight percent include botanical gardens, zoos, natural history museums, historic sites, children’s museums, and other museum types.
Fifty-seven percent are small museums with operating budgets under $100,000 a year; 27% have budgets of $100,000 to $1 million; and 16% over $1 million. The New York City region is the outlier, with 53% of museums reporting annual operating budgets exceeding $1 million. Only 17% operate on less than $100,000 there, and just 5% on less than $25,000.
Eighty percent of New Yorkers are frequent, casual, or occasional museum-goers according to the report. 96% of New Yorkers think museums are educational assets in their communities. Museums and public libraries are the most trusted public sources of information for New Yorkers. Nearly nine out of ten New Yorkers think museums contribute to their community’s economy.
Seventy-nine percent of museums bear at least some responsibility for their facilities, including preservation and maintenance. Deferred maintenance needs across the sector total an estimated $1.7 billion, and 58% of museums report deferred maintenance concerns. The majority of museums occupy historic structures, many of which predate the 20th century.
While 87% of museums with 11 or more employees have formal emergency plans in place, only 20% of volunteer-run museums do.” Overall, fewer than half of museums (42%) report having a formal emergency plan in place.
Only 36% of museums report being fully accessible with no remaining barriers, while 27% report accessibility concerns, they are not currently prepared to address. Smaller museums and those located in historic structures face the greatest challenges, particularly related to cost and building limitations.
Museums identify labor shortages and revenue instability as the most significant external disruptions facing the sector. Labor concerns are the most common, cited by 44% of museums, followed by financial instability, shifts in philanthropy, and loss of funding (each identified by approximately one-third of respondents).
Anticipated disruptions vary by size. Smaller museums are more likely to report labor and volunteer shortages; larger institutions express greater concern about philanthropy, financial instability, and changes in travel and tourism.
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