Evening events have proved especially attractive to younger museum-goers since the trend began in the late 1990s.
The idea of dropping in after work during the week or as the first stage of a night out on a Friday appeals to younger visitors, who typically have less free time during weekdays and are fully booked at weekends.
There is a lot more to late night events than just keeping the doors open for an extra few hours, and music, DJ sets, poetry readings and film screenings regularly feature.
Hands-on activities such as craft workshops are also starting to make an appearance. There is a strong appetite for live performances among millennials, who relish the opportunity to socialise and have unique experiences.
National Museums Scotland
National Museums Scotland (NMS) began running Museum Lates a few years ago as part of efforts to engage younger audiences. It was prompted to introduce the events after research showed that millennials were visiting less often than other groups, and many of those that did visit came as independent learners.
“We had a lot of students and young people coming in who were self-directed learners but not really touching the sides,” says Stephen Allen, the head of learning and programmes at NMS.
“So we knew there was an interest, we knew people were well-disposed towards us, they just weren’t visiting us in the numbers that we’d expect.”
Open to the over-18s, the late night-themed events run three times a year, and feature live bands and DJs alongside talks and activities including face painting and object handling that have been adapted for an adult audience.
Museum Lates are co-curated with the team at free events magazine The List, which covers Edinburgh and Glasgow. “The person we are working with at The List has great connections within the Scottish music scene and was able to identify up and coming bands who fit the context,” says Allen.
“We’ve had some fairly high profile people in terms of emerging bands and talents – Django Django played three years ago just before they were nominated for the Mercury Prize – and that’s one of the things that makes it work.”
But the Museum Lates are more than a good excuse to get a band on the premises. One event was based on the exhibition Photography: A Victorian Sensation and featured: a 19th-century photography studio, where visitors could take their own Victorian selfies; a moustache-making session; and a curator face-off, two curatorial experts arguing why their collection was more important than the other’s.
“It’s about mixing quite a light informal touch with proper content,” says Allen. “For the face-off, two of our curators did a kind of stand-up, presenting why their collections were more interesting and sexier than someone else’s collections. We had a vote at the end.
“Dr Andrew Kitchener, our specialist in vertebrates, put on a dinner jacket and spoke about Victorian collecting of specimens and taxidermy, and how these items were represented in our collections,” he says.
“It is really about utilising the talents and skills in the museum and people’s passion for the collections really comes across. Happily, there’s no shortage of curators who love a bit of a show-off.”
The museum’s evaluation of the sell-out events shows a spike in the numbers of visitors from 18 to 35. A key aspect of their appeal, says Allen, is that they provide an informal and sociable learning environment.
The Museum Lates are so successful that they are self-sustainable and no longer need to be offered as part of a sponsorship package with the Royal Bank of Scotland. Revenue is generated from direct ticket sales and drinks sales at the bar.
William Morris Gallery
The William Morris Gallery’s bi-monthly WMG Late events are inspired by temporary exhibitions or the permanent collection, and have attracted more people in their 20s, especially those that live near its site in Walthamstow, London.
“Everything that we do always comes back to William Morris, but we want to make sure that his appeal goes beyond his core fanbase,” says James Gray, the gallery’s marketing officer.
“People in their 20s are under-represented among visitors to the permanent collections and displays, so that’s one reason we want to attract them, but the demographic of the area is also getting younger and we want to see that reflected in our work.”
Like NMS, the gallery collaborates with others who know the market well. To this end it runs WMG Lates with the Vine Collective – a specialist in arty and eclectic events. While the collaboration ensures the programme is appealing to the target audience, its quality is what is key to its success.
The recent WM Late Agitate, was inspired by the political campaigning of the artist Bob and Roberta Smith [Patrick Brill], whose work featured in the exhibition Art is your Human Right, which is running at the gallery until 31 January.
Celebrating artistic activism, the exhibition draws on ideas from the curators and other staff and incorporates performances by poets, a DJ set and film clips from KLF founder Bill Drummond alongside craft activities.
Hands-on activities that give the audience a chance to participate and make things are always a selling point, says Gray.
One of the gallery’s most successful late night events was the All Blues – a night of entertainment based around themes identified by the artist in residence Lucille Junkere’s work on indigo. It included live blues music and practical demonstrations of how to dye using natural indigo.
In August, at the late event coinciding with the gallery’s exhibition, David Mabb’s Announcer, an exploration of Russian typography, the public had the chance to work with an illustrator to make their own Constructivist mobiles.
Student groups
Working with universities has enabled some museums to expand their appeal to the student market in new ways.
The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London has found that its Friday Late evenings are particularly popular with younger groups, with around 71% of the audience they attract aged 16-34.
Organised by the V&A’s digital architecture and design department, every Friday Late has a different theme, from video games to pottery. A collaboration with the University of the Arts London has brought students in to run workshops and other activities during freshers’ week.
Nottingham Contemporary has close ties with both the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent, which jointly fund the gallery’s public programme of events. Faculty members sit on a working group that designs the programme’s content and, if the themes are relevant to a particular subject or discipline, the events are marketed directly to students.
The Whitworth art gallery – run by the University of Manchester - collaborates with Manchester Metropolitan University, to put on the free Tuesday Talks programme, targeting both BA and MA students.
The idea of dropping in after work during the week or as the first stage of a night out on a Friday appeals to younger visitors, who typically have less free time during weekdays and are fully booked at weekends.
There is a lot more to late night events than just keeping the doors open for an extra few hours, and music, DJ sets, poetry readings and film screenings regularly feature.
Hands-on activities such as craft workshops are also starting to make an appearance. There is a strong appetite for live performances among millennials, who relish the opportunity to socialise and have unique experiences.
National Museums Scotland
National Museums Scotland (NMS) began running Museum Lates a few years ago as part of efforts to engage younger audiences. It was prompted to introduce the events after research showed that millennials were visiting less often than other groups, and many of those that did visit came as independent learners.
“We had a lot of students and young people coming in who were self-directed learners but not really touching the sides,” says Stephen Allen, the head of learning and programmes at NMS.
“So we knew there was an interest, we knew people were well-disposed towards us, they just weren’t visiting us in the numbers that we’d expect.”
Open to the over-18s, the late night-themed events run three times a year, and feature live bands and DJs alongside talks and activities including face painting and object handling that have been adapted for an adult audience.
Museum Lates are co-curated with the team at free events magazine The List, which covers Edinburgh and Glasgow. “The person we are working with at The List has great connections within the Scottish music scene and was able to identify up and coming bands who fit the context,” says Allen.
“We’ve had some fairly high profile people in terms of emerging bands and talents – Django Django played three years ago just before they were nominated for the Mercury Prize – and that’s one of the things that makes it work.”
But the Museum Lates are more than a good excuse to get a band on the premises. One event was based on the exhibition Photography: A Victorian Sensation and featured: a 19th-century photography studio, where visitors could take their own Victorian selfies; a moustache-making session; and a curator face-off, two curatorial experts arguing why their collection was more important than the other’s.
“It’s about mixing quite a light informal touch with proper content,” says Allen. “For the face-off, two of our curators did a kind of stand-up, presenting why their collections were more interesting and sexier than someone else’s collections. We had a vote at the end.
“Dr Andrew Kitchener, our specialist in vertebrates, put on a dinner jacket and spoke about Victorian collecting of specimens and taxidermy, and how these items were represented in our collections,” he says.
“It is really about utilising the talents and skills in the museum and people’s passion for the collections really comes across. Happily, there’s no shortage of curators who love a bit of a show-off.”
The museum’s evaluation of the sell-out events shows a spike in the numbers of visitors from 18 to 35. A key aspect of their appeal, says Allen, is that they provide an informal and sociable learning environment.
The Museum Lates are so successful that they are self-sustainable and no longer need to be offered as part of a sponsorship package with the Royal Bank of Scotland. Revenue is generated from direct ticket sales and drinks sales at the bar.
William Morris Gallery
The William Morris Gallery’s bi-monthly WMG Late events are inspired by temporary exhibitions or the permanent collection, and have attracted more people in their 20s, especially those that live near its site in Walthamstow, London.
“Everything that we do always comes back to William Morris, but we want to make sure that his appeal goes beyond his core fanbase,” says James Gray, the gallery’s marketing officer.
“People in their 20s are under-represented among visitors to the permanent collections and displays, so that’s one reason we want to attract them, but the demographic of the area is also getting younger and we want to see that reflected in our work.”
Like NMS, the gallery collaborates with others who know the market well. To this end it runs WMG Lates with the Vine Collective – a specialist in arty and eclectic events. While the collaboration ensures the programme is appealing to the target audience, its quality is what is key to its success.
The recent WM Late Agitate, was inspired by the political campaigning of the artist Bob and Roberta Smith [Patrick Brill], whose work featured in the exhibition Art is your Human Right, which is running at the gallery until 31 January.
Celebrating artistic activism, the exhibition draws on ideas from the curators and other staff and incorporates performances by poets, a DJ set and film clips from KLF founder Bill Drummond alongside craft activities.
Hands-on activities that give the audience a chance to participate and make things are always a selling point, says Gray.
One of the gallery’s most successful late night events was the All Blues – a night of entertainment based around themes identified by the artist in residence Lucille Junkere’s work on indigo. It included live blues music and practical demonstrations of how to dye using natural indigo.
In August, at the late event coinciding with the gallery’s exhibition, David Mabb’s Announcer, an exploration of Russian typography, the public had the chance to work with an illustrator to make their own Constructivist mobiles.
Student groups
Working with universities has enabled some museums to expand their appeal to the student market in new ways.
The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London has found that its Friday Late evenings are particularly popular with younger groups, with around 71% of the audience they attract aged 16-34.
Organised by the V&A’s digital architecture and design department, every Friday Late has a different theme, from video games to pottery. A collaboration with the University of the Arts London has brought students in to run workshops and other activities during freshers’ week.
Nottingham Contemporary has close ties with both the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent, which jointly fund the gallery’s public programme of events. Faculty members sit on a working group that designs the programme’s content and, if the themes are relevant to a particular subject or discipline, the events are marketed directly to students.
The Whitworth art gallery – run by the University of Manchester - collaborates with Manchester Metropolitan University, to put on the free Tuesday Talks programme, targeting both BA and MA students.