BALTIMORE, MD (WBFF) — Maryland taxpayers spent $91 last year every time a visitor walked through the front doors of Maryland’s premier museum of Black history and culture, according to an analysis conducted by The Baltimore Sun.
That’s a result of a steep decline in attendance at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture — from 104,500 during the museum’s first fiscal year to 29,648 visitors for the year ending June 30, 2025 — coupled with a quarter century’s worth of inflation.
Partly because of a funding mechanism written into the state charter, taxpayers’ per-visitor expenditure at the Lewis is nearly nine times higher than at other prominent Baltimore nonprofit museums…