The 9/11 Tribute Museum will shut down after Wednesday, just weeks away from the 21st anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks.
The museum, which opened in 2006, was founded by a group of victims’ relatives. Volunteers who had lost a family member or were connected in some way to the terrorist attacks led tours at the museum. It has struggled to stay open since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the museum’s CEO.
“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 separate from the The National September 11 Memorial & Museum, which opened in 2014 near the memorial pools.
The soon-to-be-shuttered museum will continue its presence online, which will allow it to continue providing educational resources and support for the 9/11 community, according to Webb.
The Tribute Guided Walking Tour program, led by the Tribute Museum’s 9/11 community of survivors, first responders, residents and family members, will also cease operation, according to ABC7.
Most of the museum’s physical collection will be moved to the New York State Museum in Albany.
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