Smithsonian’s numbers game

Overall attendance at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington has dropped this year, but its art museums are attracting record crowds, officials reported this week.

The National Portrait Gallery and the Smithsonian American Art Museum have drawn nearly a quarter-million people to the Reynolds Center since it reopened in early July. That is a dramatic upturn; the museums had never drawn more than 450,000 a year.

The Smithsonian’s three most popular museums -- Air and Space, Natural History, and American History -- traditionally bring in the largest crowds and still do, but there has been little growth.

Attendance at Washington’s National Gallery of Art, which is not part of the Smithsonian, is another indicator of the popularity of art museums. It has already had 3.5 million visitors this year, up from 3.2 million a year ago.