Museums and Millennials

Book excerpt: Is your museum struggling to entice and engage a millennial audience? In Museums and Millennials author Jackie Spainhour offers a new and innovative approach to attracting and retaining the interest of millennial patrons through an easy-to-implement and practical self-assessment based on the success (and failures!) of other museum programs. This book will help you start the process of reinventing your approach to this engaging generation by: Reimagining the millennial generatio, beginning with debunking myths about their wants, needs, and spending power. Giving museum professionals a place to begin their quest- through the lens of the acronym “A.U.R.A.” Checking your museum’s “A.U.R.A.” (Affordability, Uniqueness, Relevance, and Accessibility) to ensure the programming you are currently offering this generation meets their standards and aligns with your mission. Using your findings to create new programs and campaigns geared towards getting millennials inside your doors and keeping them there long-term. Offering program examples from museums of various sizes and scopes throughout the nation geared towards a millennial audience, with explanations of why some programs were more successful than others. Providing tips and tricks for reaching millennials where they are and on a small budget. Helping museum professionals begin the process of giving millennials a voice in museum programs designed for them. Suggesting a path towards success that begins with the millennial generation taking on roles as patrons, members, volunteers, donors, board representatives, part-time workers, and in senior management. Millennials want to be your partners in preservation. They want their voices heard and prefer a hands-on approach to their programming. The highlighted program examples in this work will help you reimagine how your facility is viewed by millennials, what practical changes can be made to persuade them to patronize your facility, and discuss how to create bonds which will last past the individual programs they attend and into the foreseeable future. Museums and Millennials features strategies used by museums of various backgrounds and budgets, advice from respected and data-driven consultants in the field, and offers action-oriented solutions to audience engagement issues. Let this book inspire you to try, or try again, to engage this coveted generation.