There was an exceptional amount of traffic near the Witte Museum Tuesday as more than 10,000 visitors stopped by the recently re-opened natural science and history museum – a record-breaking day.
Some families waited up to 45 minutes to enter the museum, which offers free admission from 3-8 p.m. every Tuesday.
The Witte, which celebrated its $100 million renovation last week, and other museums in San Antonio will be especially busy this week as area schools let out for spring break.
The Witte expects more than 40,000 visitors over the course of the week.
The San Antonio Museum of Art was also free on Tuesday and featured spring break programming in the form of art-making, music, tours, and film, which more than 2,500 visitors attended.
“We traditionally see an uptick in visitors throughout the week and anticipate we will match our attendance numbers from previous years,” Marketing Director Tatiana Herrera-Schneider told the Rivard Report in an email. “If our parking lot is any indication, we’re in for a fun and busy week.”
Thursday’s Art to Lunch, the new, ongoing series Art in Any Language, which will take place on Saturday to welcome newcomers to San Antonio with English and non-English tours, and weekly gallery tours on Sunday mornings at 11 a.m. and noon round out SAMA’s events during spring break.
A DoSeum spokesperson said that on average, the children’s museum hosts 4,000-5,000 visitors per week and expects more than 20,000 for spring break. The artist in residence exhibit, The Dream Keeper by artist Richard Armendariz, is free with admission and open until 6 p.m. during spring break.
The McNay Art Museum saw 858 visitors on Tuesday alone, nearly doubling last year’s attendance on the same day. Staff anticipates the same kind of increase throughout the week. As part of its Monet to Matisse exhibit, the museum is hosting several themed events for children and adults.
