ART

Success in San Francisco: The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art’s new building, which opened in January 1995, has been a booming success. During its first year in the new facility, attendance jumped from 204,000 to 800,000; membership grew from 13,000 to 36,000; bookstore sales increased from $2 million to $5.5 million; and the museum accepted an unprecedented quantity of art gifts. The numbers are likely to level off and even drop now that the novelty has faded, but the museum has clearly put itself on the map. Having risen from the country’s 55th best-attended museum to 10th place, it also has increased its out-of-town visitorship from 37% to 55%.