I work as a consultant with Maryhill Museum of Art, which is located in a remote area of Washington state, about 90 miles east of Portland, OR in the Columbia River Gorge. Maryhill is one of the few cultural outposts in that area and a field trip destination for many rural schools. I should also note that Maryhill is closed November 15 - March 15 each year because of the weather in the area, so numbers are based on a 9-month year.
Colleen Schafroth, the museum's director, provided this information about their school tour numbers:
When we had busing funds (2002 and 2003) visits increased. From 2005 onwards we have worked hard to have busing money. And it became more and more necessary. Without the funds our numbers would be very low indeed. So you can see, being proactive in seeking funds to support school visits has paid off for us as we are seeing increased visits when just about everyone else is seeing declines. Now we especially seek bus funds for Museum Week (a program for third & fourth graders, held each fall) -- and this brings 1000 kids to the museum, virtually all supported by the bus funds.
1998 2,740
1999 2,358
2000 2,623
2001 1,601
2002 2,248
2003 2,135
2004 1,800
2005 2,336
2006 2,318
2007 2,505
2008 2,742 (to date, numbers could increase)
Colleen
Colleen Schafroth
Executive Director
Maryhill Museum of Art
35 Maryhill Museum Drive
Goldendale, WA 98620
phone: 509 773-3733
fax: 509 773-6138