SOME INTERESTING MUSEUM FACTS* YOU MAY NOT KNOW

Museums are popular - There are approximately 850 million visits each year to American museums, more than the attendance for all major league sporting events and theme parks combined.  Americans from all ranges of income and education visit museums, and museum volunteers contribute a million hours of service every week.

Note:  Attendance at the RAM and at Historical Society programs has risen appreciably since the new museum's opening.  The RAM is open six days a week, thanks to our dedicated volunteers.

 

Museums help support local economies - Businesses in communities with active museums benefit from those museums. Seventy-eight percent of all U.S. leisure travelers participate in cultural or heritage activities such as visiting museums. These travelers spend 63 percent more on average than other leisure travelers.

Note:  Our proximity to Grand Rapids area hotels and the Art Van Sports Complex positions the RAM and Rockford area businesses to take advantage of these facts.

 

Museums serve the public -  Museums preserve and protect more than a billion objects and help communities better understand and appreciate cultural diversity. Museums tell important stories by collecting, preserving, researching and interpreting objects, living specimens and historical records.

Note:  The RAM has a collection of photos, artifacts, and documents that would be the envy of many larger facilities. The collection includes local newspapers dating back to the 1870's and a horse drawn US Mail wagon used to deliver Rockford's mail in the early 1900's

 

Museums are community anchors - In determining America’s Best Cities, Businessweek.com placed the greatest weight on “leisure amenities [including density of museums], followed by educational metrics and economic metrics…then crime and air quality.

Note: The new RAM sets a high standard of excellence for small city museums with services and exhibits that are exceeptional.

 

Museums partner with schools - Museums receive approximately 55 million visits each year from students in school groups Children who visited a museum during kindergarten had higher achievement scores in reading, mathematics and science in third grade than children who did not. This benefit is also seen in the subgroup of children who are most at risk for deficits and delays in achievement.

Note: The RAM is family friendly.  We love young visitors.  Every 2nd grader in the Rockford Public Schools visits the museum every year as part of their curriculum.  Many of those 2nd graders ask their parents to bring them back to the RAM.  In addition, high school and college students serve as volunteers.

 

Museums are valuable and trustworthy - Americans view museums as one of the most important resources for educating our children and as one of the most trustworthy sources of objective information

Museums are considered a more reliable source of historical information than books, teachers or even personal accounts by relatives.

Note:  Our extensive collections and many knowledgable docents, most of whom are long term (including second and third generation) Rockford areaa residents  give us a great connection to our past through personal and family records and recollections.  Many of of our volunteers are former educators.  This wealth of local knowledge helps us tell the story of the entire Rockford area.

                                                            * Information provided by the American Alliance of Museums