The storied stretch of Fifth Avenue known as Museum Mile is bustling again. Attendance across its cluster of major institutions has surged, and museum leaders say the rebound is powered by New Yorkers rediscovering their own cultural backyard as much as by returning tourists.

Pay-what-you-wish evenings, memberships, and buzzy special exhibitions have drawn locals through the doors. The fictional Grantham Museum credits a series of after-hours programs with turning first-time visitors into regulars.

The surge is a relief for institutions still balancing the costs of ambitious programming against uncertain funding. It also affirms a civic idea at the heart of the city: that its greatest museums belong not only to the world's travelers but to the people who live down the block.