Jan. 27--Adler Planetarium last year topped 500,000 visitors for the first time in 22 years, and Morton Arboretum bested the 1 million mark for the first time in its history.
Those were among the Chicago museum attendance highlights for 2015 in a generally up year, according to figures released by the Museums in the Park consortium and individual institutions.
The 15 Museums in the Park institutions achieved a total of 15.28 million visitors, a 6 percent increase over 2014, according to the annual compilation done by the group of institutions that are on Chicago Park District land.
Biggest gainers were the Adler, up 22 percent, to 550,000 visitors; National Museum of Mexican Art, up 21 percent to 159,000; Field Museum, up 13 percent to 1.39 million; and Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, up 12 percent to 308,000.
Gains between 5 and 9 percent were posted by the Art Institute of Chicago (to 1.55 million), Museum of Science and Industry (1.50 million), Shedd Aquarium (1.95 million), Lincoln Park Zoo (3.60 million), and Brookfield Zoo (2.18 million).
Douglas Druick, the outgoing director of the Art Institute, said some of his institution's gain could be attributed to advertising based on the museum being named best in the world by Trip Advisor.
"I think it helped locally," he said. "'Hey, if they're the best in the world, maybe I should get down and see it.'"
Chicago History Museum reported a 2 percent attendance increase over 2014, while Chicago Botanic Garden and Chicago Children's Museum held steady.
The biggest attendance loser was the Museum of Contemporary Art, down 30 percent to 238,000, but the MCA, of course, in 2014 had the blockbuster "David Bowie Is" exhibition. The 2015 figure represented an increase over 2013 and 2012 gate counts.
The only other two museums to lose attendance were DuSable Museum of African American History, down 15 percent to 100,000, and National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts, down 8 percent to 16,000.
Adler executives attributed the attendance growth to revamped exhibitions and its "Space Is Freaking Awesome" marketing campaign. The last time the 500,000 mark was beaten at the Adler was in 1993; in June that year the museum went from free to an admission charge.
Morton Arboretum, in west suburban Lisle, announced it had topped 1 million visitors in late December, attributing its milestone to the summer exhibition "Nature Connects: Art With Lego Bricks" and to the now annual holiday season "Illumination" light display.
The area's other major nature park, Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe, first passed 1 million visitors in 2013 and has been able to maintain that level.
sajohnson@chicagotribune.com
