‘Bowie Is’ exhibit a record-setter at Museum of Contemporary Art

The exhibit was here just over three months, and in that time, “David Bowie Is” became a record-breaker for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.

According to the MCA, which released its final numbers on the exhibit today:

• More than 193,000 people visited the museum during the exhibit’s 15-week run (the only U.S. stop for the exhibit), making it the most successful exhibit in the museum’s history.

• The MCA website enjoyed more than 1 million hits.

• A new financial model was created to optimize capacity during the MCA’s first-ever “timed tickets” procedure, a special admission price and extended hours.

• The Bowie-themed gift shop sold 189,000 items, including 7,000 Bowie exhibition catalogues, 14,000 T-shirts produced exclusively for the MCA, and 2,100 limited-edition prints.

• Celebrity visitors to the exhibit included: Sophia Bush, Margaret Cho, Billy Corgan, Jesse Lee Soffer, Gillian Flynn, Adrian Grenier, Daryl Hannah, George Lucas, William H. Macy, Bob Mould, Stella Maeve, Rita Ora, Aubrey Plaza, Jason Schwartzman, Earl Slick, Usher, Peter Wolf and Neil Young, among others.

Missed it in Chicago? The exhibit’s upcoming tour stops include: the Philharmonie de Paris, Cité de la Musique in Paris (March-May 2015), the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne (July-November 2015), and the Groninger Museum in the Netherlands (December 2015 to March 2016).

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