For the past 42 years the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has been closed on Mondays. However this week that changed with the institution opening its doors yesterday morning. It is now open seven days a week, allowing people all over to get their art fill whenever they want to. But why did the institution decide to be open every day?
Well, tourists are stupid. People would come even though the institution would make it clear that they weren't open at the start of the week. “Every Monday morning, whatever the signage said — and we tried putting it in red, like a red light — tourists would congregate at the bottom of the stairs,” the museum’s senior vice president for public affairs said. But the new schedule can benefit the institution; 10,000 to 11,000 people visited the museum on Monday.
The museum usually reserved Mondays for maintenance and art handling, so the new extended schedule understandably presents some challenges. But the Met is resourceful, so they hired a new operations manager, to make sure the transition goes smoothly. They also hired security and admission workers. To make time for moving art, they have also decided to open at 10 a.m rather than 9:30.
[viaNYTimes]
