What has free admission meant to the Contemporary Arts Center?

He was on a 75-day road trip.

And on July 2, that trip included a visit to the Contemporary Arts Center.

He said he loved that it didn't cost a dime. He said everyone should experience art. That art is not just for the wealthy.

On Dec. 3, one, two, three groups became gallery visitors once staff told each of them that the Glenn Brown exhibition was actually free.

Two days later, another guest to the Downtown institution didn't say anything at all to the staff stationed at the front desk.

He just applauded on his way out of the door.

It's all these "Iittle experiences" in the last year, as CAC director Raphaela Platow calls them, that have added up to an unprecedented audience for the 78-year-old center.

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In fiscal year 2016, the CAC hosted 136,879 people in the gallery spaces, as well as in programs and events.

The CAC ended admission charges during that period. At 10 a.m. on Feb. 13, 2016, to be exact.

The 2016 total is up from 84,287 during the previous fiscal year. That's an almost 62 percent increase.

"It feels really good because, of course, we do what we do because we want to have an impact in this community," Platow said. "We want to offer something that people find engaging and interesting and inspiring."

The Johnson Foundation, as well as a CAC patrons group known as The 50, committed to subsidizing admission for at least three years. Those two sources supplied a total of $225,000 to fund this initiative.

And at the CAC, this gift in action looked like a lot of different kinds of people encountering cutting-edge contemporary art in different ways, Platow said.

That's someone from Indianapolis spending three hours examining each piece in each exhibit on each floor. A Downtown dweller popping in to visit one piece for about 10 minutes.

Platow watched as parents joined their kids playing on the floor in the lobby's sofa area. As a group of teenagers brought their cameras and a pile of clothes for a fashion shoot staged in the dramatic alcoves and striking expanses of the Zaha Hadid-designed building.

"We can be this place where people are in the moment, with each other, in dialogue," she said. "Just here to appreciate the space and the time that they have with each other. I see that day in and day out."

The CAC has long been more than a gallery space.

The reimagined lobby, which debuted in 2015, introduced a cafe concept from Collective Espresso that transformed the CAC into a work destination, a place for people to chat over lattes. Or for someone to grab a sandwich as they multitasked, taking bites between typing lines in emails.

That boosted attendance, too, from 48,107 in fiscal year 2014 to that 84,287 for 2015's count.

The cafe, however, is slated for another phase soon. This week, the CAC announced it is opening Bottle & Basket CAC, a full-service restaurant, and M. Wellmann's, a cocktail bar, in the Kaplan Hall lobby space.

Wellmann’s Brands opening restaurant, bar at CAC

It's expected to open this spring and the expectation is that the new approach will attract more visitors in the evenings, that it will tap into the burgeoning dining and drinking scene Downtown.

One thing that hasn't changed this past year – and won't in the years to come – is the CAC's mission. The type of art the non-collecting art institution presents and the type of response it triggers.

"We've always been challenging ideas and ideals, but we are just doing it on a bigger stage now," said Asa Featherstone, media communications coordinator.

Take the second floor of the CAC right now. The two shows – Noel Anderson's "Blak Origin Moment" and Andrea Bowers' "Womxn Workers of the World Unite!" – both pose provocative questions about identity and history, about gender and race, about the roles of the individual and the responsibilities of the movement.

The intention behind these presentations is to open minds and to engage those minds that might already be open, Platow said.

And that's why more visitors to the CAC matter to the supporters of the institution's ambition aim, from the donors covering the costs of admission for the community to the staff members who write down the comments they hear from guests at the front desk.

These are the people asking some of the most provocative questions of all.

What can thousands of open minds, thousands of free-thinkers willing to engage in difficult discussions do together? What would that Cincinnati, beyond the gallery walls, look like?