HARLINGEN — Even museums sometimes go back in time.
The number of visitors to the Harlingen Arts and Heritage Museum was off 90 percent in 2020, the museum board was told this week, thanks to COVID-19 and its related shutdowns and lockdowns.
“Yes, we made a comeback in December a little bit,” Stefani Miller, museum coordinator, told the board. “We had 459 visitors, which was for a whopping grand total of 5,777 for the year.”
The 2019 visitor total was 60,203, Miller said.
The museum was closed to visitors for months as part of the city’s response to COVID-19, and the resulting loss of its availability for visitors is apparent.
In fact, the number of visitors in 2020 was more in line with visitor numbers from a decade ago, and underscores how far the museum has come since.
“Do you know how long it took us to get to 20,000?” asked board member Wanda Greenhill.
“It wasn’t easy, and I was just thinking about it,” said Joel Humphries, director of arts and entertainment for the city. “I remember back around 2005 and 2006, we’d have been pleased with sixty-seven-hundred people coming through this place.”
“Hopefully, we’ll get back to that one of these days,” Greenhill answered.
