The 9/11 Tribute Museum in New York City closed Wednesday after its vital ticket revenue plummeted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The museum, located in Lower Manhattan, was started by FDNY widows and had welcomed more than 5 million visitors since it opened in 2006, according to multiple reports. Most of the artifacts and memorabilia at the museum will be moved to the New York State Museum in Albany.
“Two-thirds of our income revenue annually comes from our earned income from admissions,” Jennifer Adams-Webb, co-founder of the museum and the CEO of the September 11th Families’ Association, told the New York Post. “We were completely closed for six months in 2020. We had been averaging 300,000 visitors a year … and last year we had a total of 26,000 visitors, so it completely annihilated our earned income.”
The Tribute Museum is a separate entity from the National September 11 Memorial & Museum that is located on the World Trade Center site.
Museum officials began seeking assistance from either elected officials or philanthropists back in March when it revealed its grim financial situation.
Visitation had started to rebound in 2022, but it was still below its pre-pandemic averages.
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