Free admission and a popular exhibit helped boost attendance at the Figge Art Museum this summer. From June through last weekend (9/25), 31,000 people visited the museum in downtown Davenport, an increase of 9,000 over last year.
Executive director, Tim Schiffer, says the museum first offered free admission a year ago during the summer as part of its 10th anniversary celebration, and attendance jumped by 9,000 over the previous year.
Free admission for 15 weeks this year was made possible by grants from the Bechtel Trusts and John Deere Classic.
Schiffer says credit for the successful summer also goes to the exhibit, "The Wonderful World of Oz."
The exhibit brought in people from Chicago and Kansas City, plus one man who drove to the Figge from Rochester, New York to see the Oz exhibit.
