A great department st­o­re, easily reached, op­en at all hours, is more like a good museum of art than any of the museums we have yet established, John Cotton Dana, who in 1909 founded the Newark Museum in New­ark, New Jersey, said about the lack of facilities at most museums. By the late 20th century, it looked as if he might still have a point: For many, museums were seen as re­actionary mausole­ums, or, as the British phi­losopher Alan Watts put it, “places where art goes to die.”

Yet over the past few years the number of museum visitors has been steadily rising worldwide, despite the economic downturn, accor­ding to industry fig­ures. Jud­ging from the nu­mber of patrons frequenting the in-house restaurant at the Tate Modern in London, browsing Swedish design objects at the Moderna Museet shop in Stockholm, or bringing their children to dash aro­und La Maison des Petits, designed by Matali Crasset at the Parisian arts centre 104, these spaces are not art cemeteries, but rather vibrant destinations where the exhibitions are sometimes beside the po­int.

Facilities like cafes, res­taurants and bookshops ha­ve “for many years been se­en as part of the essential services museums and gall­eries provide,” said Mai­treyi Maheshwari, a curator at the London gallery 176 Zabludowicz Collection. But, she added, “in recent years these have tended to become more sophist­icat­ed, with many galleries op­ening, for example, more exclusive restaurants.”

A quality restaurant is now often an expected fea­ture of a good museum. Sin­ce opening in late 2004, the Modern restaurant at MoMA in New York has consistently garnered accolades, including a Michelin star. Tate Modern won the Time Out award as best family cafe in London last year, while the National Gallery won the best British book prize at the British Book Design and Production awards — not for an art tome, but for “The National Cookbook,” a recipe book inspired by the food served at its award-winning rest­aurant, run by the chef Oli­ver Peyton.

In Paris, one restaurant was conceived as an art installation in its own right. Last summer the Palais de Tokyo opened Nomiya, a 12-seater “restaurant eph­émère,” a temporary dining space on the roof of the museum. Created as part of ArtHome, a concept by the Swedish electrical applian­ce maker Electrolux, the restaurant, designed by the artist Laurent Grasso, was originally due to close in July but is now set to stay open until September, or possibly even longer, the organizers say.

But as directors vie for visitors with a burgeoning number of public and private museums, they are not preoccupied only with cafes and shops. An emphasis on novel “concept” events is also becoming more pop­ular. For example, the Art­Home concept at the Palais de Tokyo runs, in conjunction with Nomiya, cooking workshops for adu­lts and children six days a week, while the 104 arts space started a regular wee­kend bric-a-brac sale this year. Visitors can now buy vin­tage clothing and bro­wse for knickknacks in the ma­in hall of the arts center during the event, run in collaboration with the charity Emmaüs.

On a more quirky note, in London last year the Science Museum started “La­tes,” a free singles night held once a month, which lured more than 3,000 visitors to the museum for the event. And at “Late at Ta­te,” visitors can browse ex­hibitions with drinks in ha­nd when the gallery stays open until 10 pm one Friday per month.Such has been the suc­cess of many museums’ ev­ents and facilities that in some cases they have become independent attractions.