Boston Museum of Fine Arts | New England by the Numbers
Numbers and facts about Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, founded 150 years ago.
By Yankee Magazine
Dec 27 2019
Boston Museum of Fine Arts | New England by the Numbers
150
Years since the MFA was founded (2/4/1870)
3
Major city institutions whose treasures the MFA was created to display (MIT, Harvard, Boston Athenaeum)
7/4/1876
The MFA opens in Copley Square on the nation’s centennial
1907
The MFA is the world’s first museum to employ an official guide, called a docent
2018
The MFA is the world’s first museum to employ a pest-sniffing dog, a Weimaraner puppy called Riley
$2.9M
Estimated cost of the MFA’s new home in the Fenway when unveiled in 1909
$504M
Estimated cost of the MFA’s single biggest renovation project when unveiled in 2010 (including the new 121,307-square-foot Art of the Americas Wing)
35%
Increase in attendance the year after the renovation debuted
$115–$274
One-year cost of a family membership
$0
One-year cost of a family membership for newly naturalized U.S. citizens
42½
Height in feet of Dale Chihuly’s Lime Green Icicle Tower, a visitor favorite acquired in 2011
30
Approximate number of hours it takes the conservation staff to dust the tower’s 2,000-plus handblown glass “icicles”