If you are member number 3,001 or later, you can get into Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art two days before its official opening Nov. 11. But since tickets will be timed, you might find yourself there in the wee hours.
CBMAA membership director Kathryn Roberts said memberships came in so hot and heavy — 3,000 between July 1, the first day you could join, and July 7 — that the museum decided to extend the first-3,000 sneak preview perk to more new members and keep the museum open 24 hours, starting at 8:30 a.m. Nov. 9. The first 3,000 members will get first choice at viewing times. Later purchases may have to settle for odd times, unless among the first 3,000 are several hundred teen-agers who’ve decided that rather than post pictures of themselves on Facebook all night long they’ll go look at art on a real wall.
Some information: As of this morning, there were 3,300 members of CBMAA. Of those, 2,071 joined between 12:01 a.m. July 1 and midnight July 4. The total did not take into account Tuesday mail memberships.
We wondered if the round-the-clock preview Nov. 9-10 take some of the pizzazz out of the Nov. 11 festivities (starting at 11:11 a.m., she believes). Robert says she doesn’t think so, given the number of non-members who’ll show up that day.