Chicago, like other big U.S. metros, is still grasping at how to repopulate a central business district that’s been deserted for close to four years. Unlike most of the others, however, Chicago has a superpower that, if put to more effective use, could really help liven up the Loop: the city’s world-class cultural institutions.
Before the pandemic shut them down in 2020, Chicago’s top five museums by attendance — the Field Museum, the Shedd Aquarium, the Art Institute, the Museum of Science and Industry and the Adler Planetarium — collectively tallied 7 million visitors a year. Through this September, attendance at the three institutions clustered on the Museum Campus — the Field, Shedd and Adler — is still 10% below the pre-pandemic figure.
Imagine if they all were fully back. While these additional museumgoers wouldn’t help fill downtown’s vacant office towers, they would fill more hotels, restaurants, stores and sidewalks, putting businesses that can no longer count on commuters on firmer footing and making the central city feel more vibrant.
People would gain on a human level, too. In a recent policy paper titled “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation,” U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy notes that social connections have a huge influence on individual and societal health. He calls for doing things that increase these connections, including investments in local institutions that invite people from all walks of life. Museums fit that definition.
Chicago’s museums still have a place in the heart of most locals. Asked in a new Harris Poll survey which recreational resources they use at least a few times a year, 45% of respondents from the city and suburban Cook County said the Museum Campus and the Art Institute. That ranked those institutions behind only the lakefront in popularity. The share of regular visitors rises to 51% among younger adults.
Further, 83% of city and suburban residents said they would recommend Chicago as a place to visit. Among younger adults, ages 18 to 34, and people of color, that figure approaches 9 out of 10.
City museums are taking action to boost visits. The Shedd Aquarium, for instance, has begun a $500 million renovation that will include a new 40-foot-long underwater tunnel to give guests a feeling of being immersed themselves.
The Adler Planetarium has taken a different approach. Since its reopening last year after its COVID-19 lockdown, it’s been open for free Wednesday evenings. The day is now the busiest and draws visitors disproportionally from South and West Side neighborhoods, which the Adler attributes to having stargazed in these communities for over a decade through its ‘Scopes in the City program.
Government and philanthropists have pitched in, too. To help them make up for lost business during the first years of COVID-19, the state of Illinois provided Back to Business grants of up to $250,000 apiece this fall to a list of arts and cultural organizations, including the Adler, the Art Institute, the Field, the Museum of Science and Industry, the Shedd and the Museum of Contemporary Art. The city of Chicago provided $16.5 million to art nonprofits this year, too. And earlier, Citadel CEO Ken Griffin donated $125 million to the Museum of Science and Industry to, among other things, create a first-of-its-kind digital gallery in North America.
As lagging museum attendance figures show, however, it hasn’t been enough.
One thing that would help immensely would be reducing crime. According to the new poll, 71% of local residents said they enjoy spending time in downtown Chicago. But 4 out of 10 Chicagoans and more than half of people in suburban Cook County said they don’t feel safe doing so. Asked which investments the city should make to boost tourism, the top answer was public safety initiatives, cited by 68% of respondents.
Chicago needs its cultural institutions to bounce back; the city simply has fewer options that can draw millions of people each year. Chicago’s theaters, which could be counted on to pull in locals and tourists alike, are in a steep decline, with dozens having gone dark since 2019. Another reliable people magnet, Michigan Avenue, which once ranked as one of the top shopping destinations in the world, is a stretch of lifeless storefronts.
All of us need to pitch in, too. Even though museum attendance is down, local residents are still flocking to the city’s lakefront to visit one or more of Chicago’s landmark cultural institutions each and every day. Why? Because the experience enriches us. Let’s share what we love about our home.
We’re emerging from a pandemic, building a city that works for all and combating a crisis in social connection. It’s a lot. Turn up the loud on your Chicago proud as we weave our city’s narrative and set our city’s course together.
Michelle Larson is president and CEO of Chicago’s Adler Planetarium. Will Johnson is the Chicago-based CEO of The Harris Poll, a global public opinion, market research and strategy firm.
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