I’m going to have what my father would call a “hissy fit.”
Why? Because I recently received an e-mail from a young, and smart, museum director that made me want to scream in frustration.
Here’s what she wrote:
A couple of week ago I had the privilege of hearing someone from a large historical society down my way tell a bunch of smaller historical societies they should give up on the 20-30 somethings and wait until they get to retirement homes and then target them as an audience for historical societies. According to this development director, 20-30 somethings are only going to come in through the door for happy hour.
Of all the short-sighted things to say. Not to mention offensive to young adults who have far broader, and deeper, interests than mere happy hours (fortunately, my friend the museum director agrees with me, hence why she sent me the e-mail!).
But this development director's assertion does make two big assumptions that scares all of us at Reach Advisors. First, why do history organizations (to use this particular example) assume that an interest in history is only prevalent in retirees, and second (and more disturbing) why do they assume that younger generations will “grow into” history, especially if history organizations are not doing a thing to cultivate that interest to begin with?
I’m not picking on history organizations here. There are many, many fine examples of history organizations that are engaging to children, young adults, and, yes, older adults.
What has me annoyed is the idea that all a history organization has to do is wait, and older people will flock to them. That an interest in history will suddenly bloom when an individual receives that first Social Security payment. This strategy is a surefire way of ensuring that your history organization will not be around much longer.
Every generation grows up and develops in different ways, and while some assumptions are safe bets across generations (such as a growing need for healthcare as people age), others are iffy at best. If history organizations want to be relevant organizations to visitors, now and in the future, it is incumbent upon them to ensure that the content they are providing, as well as the medium in which it is shared, is engaging to children and adults of all ages. Because doing anything else is way too risky.
This is an issue that we have been thinking about for a while, and we are beginning to plumb the depths of in our client work, primarily on behalf of history organizations, but also for museums of other types.
If you have any thoughts to share on building the pipeline of engaged museum visitors, history or otherwise, please feel free to share by simply clicking on "comments" below. (If you are reading this from your e-mail subscription to the blog, please go to http://reachadvisors.typepad.com to add a comment.)
- Susie
