Some good from news from The Art Newspaper last week: In the UK and the US, visitor numbers to National Trust properties and artist homes have seen a sharp rise over the past year.

For example:

• At Chesterwood, the home, studio and gardens of sculptor Daniel Chester French (1850-1931), which are nestled in the Berkshires, Massachusetts, attendance has risen 50 per cent in May alone
• Visitor numbers to the home and studio of artists Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner in East Hampton on Long Island rose 20 per cent in the past year.
• Attendance at the Hudson River School painter Frederic Edwin Church's Persian-style home Olana are up ten per cent compared with last year
• In Darien, Connecticut, visitors to architect Philip Johnson's Glass House have increased 20 per cent so far compared with 2008.

"Staycations" may in part be driving the attendance boom at some National Trust properties. "We have anecdotal evidence confirming that people are spending less, staying closer to home and visiting more of our sites," says James Vaughan, National Trust vice president for historic sites in Washington, DC.

What's happening at your museum or historical society?  Are you seeing a visitation increase in 2009 compared to 2008?  Do you see evidence of staycations causing families to spend their vacation dollars closer to home?

Leave a comment and share your stories to let others know what is happening at your site!

Click here to read the complete story in The Art Newspaper.