“Who doesn’t want to be in a museum at night?”
– J. Lee Howard, at an After Dark event at the Museum of Natural History
Last year, Carnegie Museums welcomed a record number of visitors—well over 1 million. Maybe that’s because, thanks to your generous support, the museums are constantly redefining what it means to engage and inspire people of all ages. Inspiration doesn’t just happen when families and school groups visit the museums. It also occurs at any number of adults-oriented programs that are expanding the Carnegie Museums community in often surprising ways.
As many as 2,000 grown-up explorers show up for each of Carnegie Museum of Natural History’s After Dark events—to have fun and socialize, tour the galleries, and interact with museum scientists and educators. Many haven’t been inside a museum in years, or ever; and programs like Jurassic Park After Dark and Potterfest After Dark are changing that. “People are laughing in our halls. People are dancing in our halls,” says Mallory Sickle, the museum’s assistant director of lifelong learning. “For a natural history museum, that’s radical.” At Carnegie Science Center, monthly 21+ Nights are accomplishing the same radical end goal: bringing more first-time adult visitors into the Science Center, and back again.
So, too, are the Museum of Art’s Third Thursday events, which lean a little younger at 18 and over and feature everything from silent discos, to art making, to unconventional gallery tours. And as part of the Carnegie International, 57th Edition, the museum also created an opportunity of a lifetime for more than 1,600 aspiring artists: the chance to be a part of 35 drawing sessions led by International artists.
All told last year, nearly 30,000 people participated in Carnegie Museums’ adult programs, planned and executed in collaboration with community partners who bring their own unique perspectives. Christine Davis, for one, approves: “What an experience, practicing yoga in the Great Hall!”
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