Press Releases & Statements

Over 120 art museums across North America will offer free or reduced admission, special programs, and other initiatives as part of their celebrations of Art Museum Day on May 18, 2012. These museums are all members of the Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD)—located across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Building on public response to past Art Museum Days, this year AAMD is encouraging visitors to share their experiences during Art Museum Day on a special printed form available at participating museums and via social media with the hashtag #ArtMuseumDay and through special events on Facebook and Foursquare in a collective public response.

“Art museums create opportunities for the public to engage directly with works of art in new and meaningful ways—from transformative educational initiatives to innovative public partnerships.” said Chris Anagnos, Executive Director of AAMD. “AAMD believes that art should be accessible and relevant to all, and we are pleased to bring together over 120 art museums to celebrate the power of art and to encourage visitors to share their museum experiences.”

AAMD’s Art Museum Day coincides with International Museum Day, organized annually around the world by the International Council of Museums (ICOM). Participation by AAMD member museums emphasizes the lasting impact art museums have on their communities, highlights the value of the visual arts in society, and provides new opportunities for audiences to participate in wide-ranging programs and share their encounters with works of art.

Over 120 museums are participating in AAMD’s Art Museum Day in 2012. Participating museums include:
Ackland Art Museum
Albright-Knox Art Gallery
Allentown Art Museum
American Folk Art Museum
Andy Warhol Museum
Art Gallery of Ontario
Art Institute of Chicago
Asia Society Museum
Asian Art Museum
Aspen Art Museum
Austin Museum of Art
Birmingham Museum of Art
Brandywine River Museum
Brooklyn Museum
Butler Institute of American Art
Carnegie Museum of Art

Cedar Rapids Museum of Art
Cleveland Museum of Art
Colby College Museum of Art
Columbus Museum
Columbus Museum of Art
Crocker Art Museum
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art
Currier Museum of Art
Dallas Museum of Art
David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art
Delaware Art Museum
Denver Art Museum
Des Moines Art Center
Detroit Institute of Arts
Dixon Gallery and Gardens
El Paso Museum of Art
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
Flint Institute of Arts
Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art
Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum
Frick Art and Historical Center
Frist Center for the Visual Arts
Georgia O'Keeffe Museum
Grand Rapids Art Museum
Grey Art Gallery
Guggenheim Museum
Hammer Museum
Harvard Art Museums
Henry Art Gallery
High Museum of Art
Hillwood Estate, Museum, and Gardens
Indianapolis Museum of Art
Institute of Contemporary Art Boston
Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum
Japan Society Gallery
Jewish Museum
John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art
Joslyn Museum of Art
Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art
Kimbell Art Museum
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Lowe Art Museum
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art
McNay Art Museum
Meadows Museum, Southern Methodist University
Memorial Art Gallery of Rochester
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art
Miami Art Museum
Michael C. Carlos Museum
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Mint Museum
Mississippi Museum of Art
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
Montclair Art Museum
Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Morgan Library and Museum
Museo de Arte de Ponce
Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico
Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Museum of Modern Art
Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University
Nasher Sculpture Center
National Gallery of Canada
National Museum of African Art
National Museum of Wildlife Art
New Orleans Museum of Art
Noguchi Museum
Norman Rockwell Museum
Orlando Museum of Art
Palm Springs Art Museum
Peabody Essex Museum
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Portland (Oregon) Art Museum
Princeton University Art Museum
Saint Louis Art Museum
Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art
San Diego Museum of Art
San Jose Museum of Art
Seattle Art Museum
Smith College Museum of Art
Snite Museum of Art
Speed Art Museum
Spencer Museum of Art
Studio Museum in Harlem
Tacoma Art Museum
Taft Museum of Art
The Blanton Museum of Art
The Bronx Museum of the Arts
The Menil Collection
The Phillips Collection
Toledo Museum of Art
Tucson Museum of Art
Utah Museum of Fine Arts
Vero Beach Museum of Art
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Wadsworth Atheneum
Walker Art Center
Westmoreland Museum of American Art
Wexner Center for the Arts, O.S.U.
Whitney Museum of American Art
Worcester Art Museum
Yale Center for British Art
Yale University Art Gallery

A comprehensive list of participating AAMD member art museums is available in the newsroom of the AAMD website (http://www.aamd.org/newsroom/). Note that while ICOM’s International Museum Day is formally held each year on May 18th, some institutions shift their celebrations to adjacent dates.

Art Museum Day is an opportunity to focus attention on the role of art museums in North America as part of a larger worldwide initiative. ICOM’s International Museum Day (http://icom.museum/imd.html) has been celebrated all over the world since 1977, to encourage public focus on the museum as “an institution in the service of society and of its development.”
The Association of Art Museum Directors, representing 209 art museum directors in the US, Canada, and Mexico, aids its members in establishing and maintaining the highest professional standards for themselves and the museums they represent. It serves as a forum for the exchange of information and the exploration of ideas, and as a voice with which museum directors may express their joint perspectives and those of their institutions. Further information about AAMD is available at www.aamd.org.