New York museum census counts 1,176 institutions and $1.7B in deferred maintenance

New York has completed its first statewide museum census, finding that the state’s museums carry an estimated $1.7 billion in deferred maintenance and that most run on small budgets and volunteer labor.

The New York Study of Public and Private Museums, prepared by Wilkening Consulting for Empire State Development, counted 1,176 qualifying chartered museums that serve an estimated 47 million visitors a year and employ about 33,000 people. Assemblymember Didi Barrett and the Museum Association of New York announced its release on September 17.

The study was authorized by Part FF of Chapter 56 of the Laws of 2023, legislation Barrett championed, which directed Empire State Development to conduct a census of the state’s public and private museums.

Most of those institutions are small: 57% operate on annual budgets under $100,000, 60% have no full-time employees, and a third rely entirely on volunteers for every task, from greeting visitors to caring for collections, the study shows.

History museums make up the majority, with 53% of museums identifying themselves as history museums, including local history organizations and historical societies. Art museums make up 10% and historic house museums 9%.

The census also could not establish how many objects New York’s museums hold. While 95% of participating museums reported holding collections, only 41% could report the size or scope of them, and the report states the total volume of objects stewarded statewide “is unknown.”

One respondent, identified only as a medium-sized history museum in the Palisades region, wrote about the risk of losing a collection outright.

“Once a museum and its collection is gone, it is gone. Yes, some of the collection will be saved, but never all, and the opportunity to engage will never be the same,” the respondent wrote.

Only 33% of museums collect basic geographic data about their visitors, and few track demographics, school participation or reasons for visiting. The report says this limits any statewide assessment of preservation responsibility, insurance needs, conservation demands and documentation gaps.

The New York City region accounts for 67% of all statewide museum visits. Its median museum draws 18,000 visitors a year, nine times the statewide median of 2,000.

In New York City, 53% of museums report annual budgets above $1 million and 17% operate on less than $100,000, compared with 57% statewide, documents show.

The study found 79% of museums bear at least some responsibility for their buildings, most of them historic structures, and 58% report deferred maintenance concerns. It puts the reported repair backlog at $1.2 billion and the estimated statewide total at $1.7 billion.

The report calls those figures “likely conservative,” noting that 18% of museums said they had “no idea” what their maintenance backlog would cost.

Fewer than half of museums, 42%, have a formal emergency plan. Among museums with 11 or more employees, 87% have one; among volunteer-run museums, 20% do.

Just over a third of museums, 36%, report being fully accessible with no remaining barriers, and 27% report accessibility concerns they are not currently prepared to address. The smallest museums and those in historic buildings face the steepest costs, the report says.

Asked what disruptions they anticipate, museums most often named labor shortages, cited by 44%, followed by financial instability, shifts in philanthropy and loss of funding, each named by about a third, the study shows.

Most museums, 88%, receive money from individuals and corporations. Another 76% draw earned income such as memberships and shop sales, 49% get money from municipal governments and 32% reported revenue from the State of New York.

In 2024, 65% of museums hosted K-12 students on field trips, an estimated 2.98 million students statewide, but the median museum hosted just 58.

One respondent, a small history museum in the Capital-Saratoga region, tied thin field-trip numbers to school budgets.

“Because of budget cuts, the schools are no longer doing more than one field trip a year, and it is not to go to a small history museum,” the museum wrote.

Barrett, who has served in the Assembly since 2012, tied the study’s release to reductions in federal cultural funding.

“This is the first meaningful data following last year’s devastating cuts to federal support for arts and culture. We had the foresight to undertake this work and we are now positioned to act,” Barrett said. “At a consequential moment for museums and cultural institutions across the country, New York has an opportunity to lead.”

Barrett was referring to actions the Trump administration took in 2025 against the three federal agencies that fund museums, libraries and the humanities.

Beginning that April and May, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities terminated hundreds of previously awarded grants and moved to cut staff.

A federal court blocked the dismantling of IMLS, and by December 2025 the agency had reinstated the terminated grants. Congress restored full funding for all three agencies for the 2026 fiscal year, and the administration’s proposed 2027 budget seeks to wind them down permanently, records show.

The study found that 11% of New York museums reported any federal funding, which averaged 9% of revenue for those that received it.

“Most of New York’s museums are small, local organizations sustained by dedicated staff and volunteers, often working with very limited resources,” said Sarah Van Anden, executive director of the Museum Association of New York.

Another respondent, identified only as a small history museum in the Central region, wrote that annual costs of about $5,000 were becoming hard to cover.

“It is tough for a small community organization to come up with $5000 each year to keep our doors open … Some members have been generous with their time and donations, but everyone is getting older so we have many challenges,” the respondent wrote.

Another, a small history museum in the New York City region, said state capital grants were hard to use because they pay out only as reimbursements.

“However, these grants operate on a reimbursement basis and covering payments is extremely difficult. It would be amazing if state funding for capital expenses could be better suited for organizations without a large cash stockpile,” that museum wrote.

The report’s authors recommend making grants easier for small and volunteer-run museums to win and use, including upfront funding without reimbursement requirements, tiered capital tracks for the smallest institutions, and reduced match requirements.

They also recommend changing charter renewal requirements to collect standardized data going forward, and requiring each chartered museum to maintain a shared institutional email address.

A companion survey of 2,725 New Yorkers, conducted in early 2026, found that 96% consider museums educational assets and nearly nine in 10 believe museums contribute to their local economy. Asked to rate trustworthiness on a 0-to-10 scale, New Yorkers scored museums at 7.4, above both local and national news outlets, each at 5.8, and the federal government at 4.5.

The study drew 838 responses from the 1,176 qualifying museums, a 70% response rate, and applied a multiplier to estimate statewide totals. Its authors reported 153 museums as entirely unresponsive despite an average of five contact attempts, with some contacted as many as 11 times.

Data was collected between March and October 2025. The report was issued in June 2026 and released publicly in September.

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