Earlier this winter the Yale Center for British Art closed its doors for 2023 — and which will remain closed until next year.

While the temporary closing for a building conservation project is estimated to have a modest impact on the city's tourism and downtown dynamic, when taken with the shut-down of the popular Peabody Museum for its nearly four-year, nine-figure expansion project, the cumulative loss totals more than 200,000 visitors going through their doors.

In the year prior to the pandemic the YCBA received about 80,000 to 90,000 visitors per year and the Peabody attracted between 100,000 to 150,000 annual attendees.

But the loss is buffered by other factors.

"We're at a synergistic point with so many things going on in New Haven that of one thing closes there are many other attractions," says Garrett Sheehan, president and CEO of the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce. He also pointed out at that the closing of the Peabody coincided with the pandemic shutdowns so the drop-off of visitors was not impactful as it could have been.

And all is not at a loss for museum lovers with the grand dame of Yale's museums — the Yale University Arts Gallery — continuing to draw big numbers — and likely to pull even more when 60 of the YCBA's "greatest hits" travel across Chapel Street to be on display at its sister site during the museum's closing.

The 60 YCBA pieces will be a presented as a special exhibition presented on the fourth floor of the Yale Art Gallery’s Kahn building. Throughout the run of the exhibition, the two museums’ education departments will also partner to offer tours. There is also expected to be an YCBA exhibition at the adjacent School of Architecture.

Museum visitors can also choose among Yale's other arts and academic centers' exhibits — including those at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, the Yale School of Art galleries, and Sterling Memorial Library. All sites have fully re-opened since the pandemic closings. There's also the New Haven Museum and the former Knights of Columbus Museum which has now been transformed into the new Blessed Michael McGivney Pilgrimage Center.

The economic impact to the city should be minimal for the short-term closing of YCBA, says Ginny Kozlowski, executive director of Visit New Haven. But assessing cultural tourism is "complicated," noting that the pandemic continues to have a lingering effect on visitors with numbers still not quite what they were in 2019.

SUBHEAD HERE: Big reopening

But Kozlowski anticipates a more robust 2024.

The expectation is when the YCBA and the Peabody both reopen next year, a new wave of museum goers will follow and plans are already underway to capitalize on their return with museum and tourism leaders, already wooing travel writers and tourism bookers.

"We anticipate doubling our attendance after reopening," says Chris Renton, associate director of marketing and communications for the Peabody. That would mean 200,000 to 300,000 annual attendees at that museum alone.

Giving a boost to that figure is the news that the Peabody, thanks to a donor, will offer free admission "in perpetuity," joining other Yale museums that do not charge for admission.

The exact re-opening date is not yet announced but Peabody director David Skelly says it will be in the first few months of 2024. "We've been back in museum since new year working installing all the exhibits," he says, including putting its famed dinosaurs bones back together again.

Founded in 1866, the Yale Peabody Museum is one of the world’s oldest and largest university museums of its kind, home to over 14 million objects and specimens.

The exact cost of the multi-year construction project — its first major renovation/expansion in nearly a century

— is undisclosed per Yale policy, but part of that figure includes a $162 million lead gift by from alum Edward P. Bass.

Renovations include a new K-12 Education Center, a light-filled Central Gallery designed to host outreach events year-round, and a new outdoor courtyard space for community gatherings. Gallery space will expand by 50 per cent.

Alongside newly displayed fossil material, the first Brontosaurus, Stegosaurus, and Triceratops specimens ever discovered will stand beneath Rudolph Zallinger’s celebrated “The Age of Reptiles” mural in the redesigned Great Hall of Dinosaurs.

Subhead here: Renovation Details

Renovations for the BCBA will be less expansive but will include new installations of its existing pieces.

“This is an exciting time for us to reimagine the collection," says says Martina Droth, the YCBA's deputy director and chief curator."We hope visitors will see the collection in new ways."

The closing of the Yale British Arts Center — housing the largest collection of British Art outside the United Kingdom — marks another renovation of the facility in recent years. In 2016, it re-opened to the public after completing the third phase of a multiyear building conservation project.

"In terms of the changes of the physical infrastructure of the building those changes will be more discreet [compared to the last renovation] because we are making exterior improvements such as a new roof and replacing all the skylights," says says Dana Greenridge, the Building and Preservation Project Manager at the YCBA.

"There will also be an upgrading to more energy-efficient LED lighting in the galleries," she says. "Much of [architect Louis] Khan's philosophy and intention for that budding was about the light and the nature in which the objects were viewed. We're hoping it will be one of these things that it will be very subtle but transformative."