2023 Annual National Snapshot of United States Museums

Posted on Jun 27, 2023

The 2023 Annual National Snapshot of United States Museums survey, conducted by AAM and Wilkening Consulting, was fielded March-April, 2023. Over 300 museum directors responded to this AAM survey on their organizations’ behalf, representing a broad cross-section of the field in geography, size, and discipline. The survey tracked key metrics the Alliance began to collect in June 2020 to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on museums and other topics of concern for the museum field.

While museums continue to recover from the profound damage inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic, recovery is inconsistent across the field:

One-third of responding museums have rebounded to pre-pandemic attendance levels. Two-thirds continue to experience reduced attendance, averaging 71% of their pre-pandemic attendance.
88% of respondents who received a Payroll Protection Program (PPP) loan cited it as being very important to helping their institution survive the pandemic or that they probably would not have survived without it.
Financial recovery from the damage of the pandemic has been inconsistent, with 30% of museums seeing decreases in net operating performance, 39% experiencing increases, and 31% seeing no change.
Looking forward, 46% of respondents project their bottom line will increase this year compared to 2022, 16% expect decreases in their bottom line, and 38% expect no change.
26% of responding museums have not recovered to their pre-pandemic staffing levels. Of museums recruiting for job openings, 60% report trouble filling open positions, primarily among front-line roles.
Many museums are changing staff compensation packages and working conditions, including half of respondents who have shrunk the gap between their institution’s highest and lowest salaries and 50% implementing new initiatives to enhance staff wellness.
Since 2019, 11% of museums have automated some processes or tasks formerly performed by staff. Within the next year, an additional 15% intend to automate some tasks performed by staff, showing an increasing trend in automation.