This is my specialty!
I teach historical dancing. This has proven to be a perfect fit with the current passion for cosplay. Cosplay was a $4.8 BILLION industry in 2023. It's still growing. Depending upon which source you believe, there are somewhere between 10 million and 18 million cosplayers worldwide. North America has at least 40% of them. Throwing an excuse for people to play dressup potentially brings in people who have never set foot in a museum before. As we know, once people are inside your doors, they are far more likely to come back.
There are endless dance and dressup themes that any museum can explore. An art museum can throw a Come-As-Your-Favorite-Painting ball, and the dances taught reflect the years of the paintings in the gallery where the dancing is taking place, or do an 1870s ball for an incoming French Impressionist exhibit. The upcoming Semiquincentennial is the perfect marketing opportunity: it is easy to overthink the occasion, and go deep into the weeds thinking about meaning. Just throw a Hamilton ball, or a George Washington Ball, or a birthday party for the Declaration of Independence and invite people to come dressed as their favorite Schoolhouse Rock episode. Perhaps it is crass of me to suggest that the 250th be boiled down to a community outreach/marketing opportunity. But it IS a golden opportunity to bring in people who have never set foot in a museum before. Children learn through play, but adults do, too.
Utilizing Hollywood as a way to bring in new audiences is also effective. At the release of the last Downton Abbey movie, my Downton Abbey ball brought people from 5 states. People will spend $300 to go to a Bridgerton Ball who would never, ever consider spending $125 a ticket for the fundraising gala at the local art museum.
My webpage is www.DancingThruHistory.com, and is full of suggestions for themed events that bring in new audiences. It's a bit generic, and doesn't address how many ways there are to tailor an event to truly express the unique character of a particular museum, but it's a place to start.
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Jeanette Watts
Dance Historian
History is My Playground
www.DancingThruHistory.com937-974-8730
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-11-2025 10:24 AM
From: Richard Huff
Subject: What can museums do to market themselves to new audiences?
What can museums and cultural institutions do to market themselves to new audiences? How can they attract younger audiences to places they may never have considered visiting?
What works?
What absolutely does not work?
Thank you,
Rich
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Richard Huff
Assistant Professor
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