NEW YORK, NY.- The Association of Art Museum Directors (AAMD) announced today that member institutions will be participating in International Museum Day on May 18, 2010 by offering free or reduced admission, special programs, or other initiatives as part of their celebrations. AAMD member museums—located across the United States, Canada, and Mexico—include smaller regional museums as well as leading international institutions. International Museum Day is organized annually around the world by the International Council of Museums (ICOM). AAMD participation will help focus attention on the important roles that art museums serve in their communities, further showcase their remarkable collections, and increase opportunities for audiences to engage with the many educational programs art museums offer.

“We believe that art museums are crucial to our understanding of world history and cultures, and provide a unique and irreplaceable public service,” said Michael Conforti, president of AAMD and director of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA. “AAMD is committed to exploring new ways to underscore the value of the visual arts in civic society, and we are excited to join with the global community of museums to focus on this message of public service.”

AAMD members participating in International Museum Day in 2010 include:

American Folk Art Museum • Arkansas Arts Center • Art Gallery of Ontario • Art Institute of Chicago • Artpace San Antonio • Asia Society Museum • Asian Art Museum of San Francisco • Aspen Art Museum • Bass Museum of Art • Brigham Young University Museum of Art • Carnegie Museum of Art • Cleveland Museum of Art • Columbia Museum of Art • Columbus Museum • Columbus Museum of Art • Currier Museum of Art • David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art • Dayton Art Institute • Delaware Art Museum • Des Moines Art Center • Dixon Gallery and Gardens • El Museo del Barrio • Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco • Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art • Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum • Frick Art and Historical Center • Frick Collection • Frist Center for the Visual Arts • Georgia Museum of Art • Guggenheim Museum • Hammer Museum • Henry Art Gallery • Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston • Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum • Kimbell Art Museum • Madison Museum of Contemporary Art • Meadows Museum, SMU • Metropolitan Museum of Art • Miami Art Museum • Montclair Art Museum • Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts • Museo Dolores Olmedo Patino • Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego • Museum of Fine Arts, Houston • Museo Franz Mayer • Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University • Nasher Sculpture Center • National Gallery of Canada • National Museum of Wildlife Art • New Orleans Museum of Art • Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts • Philadelphia Museum of Art • Phoenix Art Museum • Portland (Oregon) Art Museum • Princeton University Art Museum • San Francisco Museum of Modern Art • Snite Museum of Art • Spencer Museum of Art • Taft Museum of Art • The Noguchi Museum • The Phillips Collection • The Wolfsonian • Vero Beach Museum of Art • Virginia Museum of Fine Arts • Walker Art Center • Westmoreland Museum of American Art • Whitney Museum of American Art • Wichita Art Museum • Yale University Art Gallery

A comprehensive list of participating AAMD member art museums will be available in the newsroom of the AAMD website). Note that while ICOM’s International Museum Day is formally held each year on May 18th, some institutions shift their celebrations to adjacent dates.

“Many of our member art museums have participated in International Museum Day in the past, but AAMD believed it was important to extend that participation and make this an initiative of the North American art museum community,” said Janet Landay, director of AAMD. “I am pleased that so many of our members are participating in welcoming both new and long-committed audiences, and know that this will be a wonderful opportunity for people across the country to experience all that our art museums have to offer.”

ICOM’s International Museum Day has been celebrated all over the world since 1977, to encourage public focus on the museum as “an institution in the service of society and of its development.” Typically, a theme is chosen for each year; ICOM’s theme for 2010 is “museums for social harmony,” with institutions around the world addressing the role of museums in society. For its first formal foray into supporting its members’ participation in Museum Day, AAMD chose to focus on this theme by directly addressing the importance of audience engagement.