🔒Wave of New Haven museum visitors expected with 2024 reopenings

Earlier this winter the Yale Center for British Art closed its doors for 2023 — and will remain closed until next year.

While the temporary closing for a building conservation project is estimated to have a modest impact on the city's tourism and downtown dynamic, when taken with the shut-down of the popular Peabody Museum for its nearly four-year, nine-figure expansion project, the cumulative loss totals more than 200,000 visitors going through their doors.

In the year prior to the pandemic the YCBA received about 80,000 to 90,000 visitors per year and the Peabody attracted between 100,000 to 150,000 annual attendees.

But the loss is buffered by other factors.

"We're at a synergistic point with so many things going on in New Haven that if one thing closes there are many other attractions," said Garrett Sheehan, president and CEO of the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce.

Sheehan also pointed out that the closing of the Peabody coincided with the pandemic shutdowns, so the drop-off of visitors was not as impactful as it could have been.

All is not lost for museum lovers with the grand dame of Yale's museums — the Yale University Art Gallery — continuing to draw big numbers. That gallery is likely to attract even more visitors when 60 of the YCBA's "greatest hits" travel across Chapel Street to be on display there.

The 60 YCBA pieces will be presented as a special exhibition on the fourth floor of Yale University Art Gallery’s Kahn building. Throughout the run of the exhibition, the two museums’ education departments will also partner to offer tours. There is also expected to be a YCBA exhibition at the adjacent School of Architecture.

Museum visitors can also choose among Yale's other arts and academic centers' exhibits — including those at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the Yale School of Art galleries and Sterling Memorial Library. All sites have fully reopened since the pandemic closures. There's also the New Haven Museum and the former Knights of Columbus Museum, which has now been transformed into the new Blessed Michael McGivney Pilgrimage Center.

The economic impact to the city should be minimal for the short-term closing of YCBA, according to Ginny Kozlowski, executive director of Visit New Haven. But assessing cultural tourism is "complicated," she said, noting that the pandemic continues to have a lingering effect on visitors with numbers still not quite what they were in 2019.

Big reopening

But Kozlowski anticipates a more robust 2024.

The expectation is when the YCBA and the Peabody both reopen next year, a new wave of museum-goers will follow. Plans are already underway to capitalize on their return with museum and tourism leaders already wooing travel writers and tourism bookers.

"We anticipate doubling our attendance after reopening," said Chris Renton, associate director of marketing and communications for the Peabody. That would mean 200,000 to 300,000 annual attendees at that museum alone.

Giving a boost to that figure is the news that the Peabody, thanks to a donor, will offer free admission "in perpetuity," joining other Yale museums that do not charge for admission.

The exact re-opening date is not yet announced, but Peabody Director David Skelly said it will be in the first few months of 2024.

"We've been back in the museum since the new year working on installing all the exhibits," he said. That includes putting its famed dinosaurs’ bones back together again.

Founded in 1866, the Yale Peabody Museum is one of the world’s oldest and largest university museums of its kind, home to over 14 million objects and specimens.

The exact cost of the multi-year construction project — its first major renovation/expansion in nearly a century — is undisclosed per Yale policy, but part of that figure includes a $162 million lead gift from alum Edward P. Bass.

Renovations include a new K-12 Education Center, a light-filled Central Gallery designed to host outreach events year-round, and a new outdoor courtyard space for community gatherings. Gallery space will expand by 50%.

Alongside newly displayed fossil material, the first Brontosaurus, Stegosaurus, and Triceratops specimens ever discovered will stand beneath Rudolph Zallinger’s celebrated “The Age of Reptiles” mural in the redesigned Great Hall of Dinosaurs.

Renovation details

Renovations for the YCBA will be less expansive, but will include new installations of its existing pieces.

“This is an exciting time for us to reimagine the collection," said Martina Droth, the YCBA's deputy director and chief curator. "We hope visitors will see the collection in new ways."

The closing of the YCBA — housing the largest collection of British art outside the United Kingdom — marks another renovation of the facility in recent years. In 2016, it reopened to the public after completing the third phase of a multiyear building conservation project.

"In terms of the changes of the physical infrastructure of the building those changes will be more discreet [compared to the last renovation] because we are making exterior improvements such as a new roof and replacing all the skylights," said Dana Greenridge, the building and preservation project manager at the YCBA.

"There will also be an upgrading to more energy-efficient LED lighting in the galleries," she said. "Much of [architect Louis] Kahn’s philosophy and intention for that building was about the light and the nature in which the objects were viewed. We're hoping it will be one of these things that will be very subtle but transformative."