DALLAS, TX.- Two years after the launch of the nation’s first free museum membership program, DMA Friends, the Dallas Museum of Art today announced that it has enrolled 100,000 Friends. This achievement now places the DMA as the fourth largest membership of any art museum in North America. Since the program’s introduction in January 2013, DMA Friends has garnered attention from both arts professionals and national media for its innovative reengineering of the traditional museum membership strategy.

Available to anyone who wishes to join, DMA Friends focuses on activating engagement with the Museum and building long-term relationships with visitors. The Museum’s emphasis on creating meaningful arts experiences and an open and welcoming environment has expanded its audience base, with 97.1% of DMA Friends self-identifying as new members at the Museum.

Launched simultaneously in 2013, the DMA Friends’ sister membership track, DMA Partners, seeks the support of individuals, corporations, and foundations as partners in philanthropy, enabling the Museum to deliver access to its extensive collection and diverse public programs. The combination of the DMA Friends membership program along with the DMA Partners membership program brings total Museum membership to 109,969. This reflects a 376% increase in membership from solely paid members prior to introduction of the free membership program and the redefined philanthropic platform. In addition, the average gift of DMA Premier Partners, annual donors of $1,000–$25,000, has increased 19% since January 2013.

“As with free general admission, the DMA Friends program invites more of our community to become invested in their city’s art museum, forging deeper connections with us through the many exhibitions, programs, and events we offer,” said Maxwell L. Anderson, the DMA’s Eugene McDermott Director. “By radically rethinking the way membership works in a museum, the DMA now consistently welcomes significantly larger numbers, providing more than 100,000 people with new and innovative ways to engage with art, the Museum, and each other.”

With the return to free general admission, the DMA’s FY 2014 attendance of 668,000 visitors marks an impressive 23% increase over the previous year and ranks as the second most highly attended year in three decades. In addition, 2015 DMA visitor research indicates particular growth in the Museum’s audiences in size and diversity since 2008. Most dramatically, this includes a 35% increase in first-time Museum visitors and a 29% increase in minority audiences, with overall audience demographics successfully mirroring that of the DFW Combined Statistical Area (CSA). More specifically, the minority audience growth at the Museum since 2008 includes a 21% increase in Hispanic visitors and an 11% increase in African American audiences, and the DMA Asian audience grew 7%.

This spring and summer, the first implementation of a two-year project on the research and expansion of the Friends platform will be activated at three partner museums across the U.S.: Denver Art Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and Minneapolis Institute of Arts. The DMA received a $450,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) nine months after the launch of DMA Friends to create a system of data collection that will support new innovations in enhancing museum attendance and membership so that replicable models of visitor engagement inspired by the DMA’s Friends program can be introduced at each institution. Designed to be easily integrated into museums’ existing membership operations, the software features digital tracking and audience analytics. The core of the software allows visitors to voluntarily provide data about their interactions with the museum in exchange for points that can be redeemed for a customized set of membership benefits.

Leaders from all of the participating institutions, including The Grace Museum in Abilene, Texas, which joined the collaboration in December 2013 and launched Grace Friends in Spring 2014, spent the past year exploring avenues for incorporating elements of the Friends program in their home markets and creating spinoff initiatives that respond to the specific audience needs of their communities. The DMA-developed visitor engagement software will include elements of the existing DMA Friends program as well as new features created based on the research from the participating institutions. The new model, which continues to foster long-term engagement by incentivizing audience participation, includes a recommendation function that currently provides suggestions on activities, badges, and rewards on log in at the DMA’s Friends kiosks; real time leader standings based on accumulative points earned; and the ability to create groups within the Friends program.

“Data has long been the backbone of many commercial sectors. The DMA Friends program proves that the cultural sector can adapt similar methodologies to impact and enhance operations. We are using new technologies and the incredible information they yield to improve our program offerings and cultivate long-lasting relationships across a very broad Museum audience. To use data to drive significant change continues to be extremely gratifying,” said Robert Stein, the DMA’s Deputy Director.