Getting People INSIDE Museums When It's Gorgeous OUTSIDE
It's the height of summer, and you know the drill: the sun is out, the humidity is (mostly) tolerable, and every single person in your community has decided that today is the day to hit the beach, the lake, the pool, the trail, or basically anywhere that isn't your museum.
If I had a nickel for every summer weekend I thought, "Why would anyone go inside right now?" I'd have a lot of nickels, and probably a sunburn to match.
But here's the thing: "nice weather" isn't actually the enemy of museum attendance. Boring programming is the enemy of museum attendance. Nice weather just makes boring programming failures more visible, because suddenly people have somewhere else (somewhere free, somewhere with a breeze) to be instead.
So the question isn't "how do we compete with the beach?" You can't. Don't try. The real question is:
What can only happen inside your walls (or just outside them) that people can't get anywhere else?
Let's dig into a few approaches, with some real-world examples.
1. Stop fighting the outdoors — Annex it!
One of the smartest moves I keep seeing is museums refusing to treat "inside" and "outside" as a hard boundary. The Eric Carle Museum in Massachusetts hosts "Sunset Thursdays" all summer, featuring late hours, live jazz, picnicking on the museum grounds, and food trucks. All with the galleries just steps away for whenever people are ready to wander in. Nobody has to choose between "outside fun" and "museum visit." The museum grounds become the outside fun, and the collection is right there as a bonus.
You don't need a blockbuster traveling exhibition to pull this off. You need a lawn, some chairs, a local musician, and permission to stay open later than usual. The "innovation" here isn't technological, it's logistical and hospitality-focused. Low cost, high payoff.
2. Give the grown-ups a reason to show up without the kids
A huge chunk of "why would I go to a museum in summer" resistance comes from adults who mentally filed museums under "field trip" or "thing I do with my kids."
The After Dark/After Hours model exists specifically to break that association, and it's everywhere right now:
• The Exploratorium's After Dark series in San Francisco mixes cocktails and playful science and art programming for adults only.
• MIT Museum's After Dark leans into its research culture -- actual MIT scientists showing off current research, plus a DJ and a cash bar.
• Fernbank After Dark in Atlanta bills itself as "date night, friend night, and 'why haven't we done this before?' night" — which might be my favorite tagline in this whole roundup.
Notice what all of these have in common: they're not really about the exhibits changing. They're about permission and framing changing. Same building, same collection, completely different invitation. That's a cheap lever to pull if you've got the staffing bandwidth for evening hours.
3. Make "hands-on" mean something outdoors, too.
Boston Children's Museum runs outdoor pop-up exhibits built entirely around messy natural materials like mud, pinecones, and stones. No screens, no batteries, nothing that needs an IT ticket when it breaks. Just kids being gloriously, appropriately filthy in a controlled way. It's about as "down and dirty" as an exhibit gets, and it turns "but it's so nice out" into an argument for visiting rather than against it.
4. Lean into what only you can offer
The New York State Museum runs free weekday summer programming built around its own collection strengths, explicitly pitched as a way to beat the heat. That's smart framing: you're not competing with the beach, you're offering cool, calm, air-conditioned learning and fun.
This is where I'd push back gently on the instinct to just throw more tech at the "summer slump" problem. The museums having real success this summer aren't doing it with elaborate digital installations — they're doing it with live music, food trucks, docents, and content only they can provide because it lives in their collection or their expertise. Nobody's beating the beach with a touchscreen.
So what does this mean for your museum?
You probably don't need a $50,000 outdoor exhibit fabrication budget or a full liquor license overnight (though hey, if you've got one, use it). What you likely already have:
- A patch of grass or a plaza you could borrow for an evening
- Staff or community members who play music, tell stories, or lead a craft
- A collection with at least one thing that's genuinely fascinating after dark, after hours, or with a drink in hand
- A "why would anyone come inside today" skeptic on staff.
(That person is your best editor.)
Start there. Pick one Thursday and see who shows up!
Has your museum tried an after-hours or "beat the heat" program this summer?
What worked, or what totally flopped? Drop a comment below!
Paul Orselli writes the posts on ExhibiTricks. Paul likes to combine interesting people, ideas, and materials to make exhibits (and entire museums!) with his company POW! (Paul Orselli Workshop, Inc.) Let's work on a project together!
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