If you’re involved in marketing for a museum, you’ll understand that promotional strategies that incorporate community-building events are crucial for increasing visitation and appealing to new audiences. There are loads of creative museum marketing ideas out there, so we’ve gathered together some hints and tips from the experts plus some innovative concepts from museum event creators.

Read on to find out how to market a museum like the Australian National Maritime Museum, which uses Sydney Harbour for interactive underwater drone workshops. We also showcase a First Peoples-led festival, yoga on the roof, themed kids’ activities, and more.

How can events help with marketing for museums?

Community-building events can be a super-beneficial marketing strategy for museums because:

  • Events are an excellent way to reach particular sections of your audience
  • Events can also appeal to and bring in new audiences, expand your reach, and be used to establish communication with your community
  • Museums often aim to connect with people locally, and events are a great way to achieve this
  • Events are an excellent way to promote the many fun and exciting things that are possible at museums

Eventbrite can help you to build a seamless attendee experience that will seriously elevate your museum and its brand. With Eventbrite Boost, you can not only easily post and manage your online or in-person museum events on a trusted platform; you can also power your growth with time-saving social media ad tools, and reach your ideal audience with intelligent targeting options and insights.

Museum programming ideas from Eventbrite creators

Below we showcase some examples of how museums around the country have used events to help them grow their museum communities in exciting and innovative ways.

The First Peoples-led IMPULSE Festival at Bundanon

Bundanon is a unique national arts organisation headquartered near Nowra, City of Shoalhaven, NSW. Once the home of renowned Australian artist Arthur Boyd, this venue is now run as a celebration of art and ideas, promoting the value of landscape in all of our lives. It’s an inspiration-charged venue for research, creativity, and connection to living cultures.

The annual IMPULSE Festival is a First Peoples-led community celebration of the stories of this unique place, both ancient and new. The program includes live music, collaborative workshops, interactive talks, and artist activations. Other attractions include a pop-up bar by a local winery and a range of food stalls on the day.

Bundanon allow attendees to pre-book a picnic hamper when they purchased their tickets online and provide the option to book their place on a shuttle bus. Giving attendees the chance to pre-book add-ons like parking, transportation, food, or merch (or buy tiered tickets that include these extras) will give you an idea of demand and give your visitors a more convenient experience.

Hosting your own music event? Read our guide to digital marketing for music events for loads of tips and examples about SEO, email, and social media marketing strategies.

Sunset rooftop yoga at the Art Gallery of WA

Are you getting the most out of every space available to you? At the Art Gallery of Western Australia, the roof is used for pop-up outdoor sunset yoga sessions with a DJ and juice bar. As the sun sets over panoramic city views, these yoga sessions with a difference help participants leave the stresses of the day behind them.

Think outside the four walls of your museum venue – you just might find some unusual and unique event spaces that are, as yet, under-utilised.

Tasting Australia – forecourt tours and tea at the National Museum of Australia

The National Museum of Australia in Canberra is almost surrounded by a living museum of Indigenous food and medicine plants that have been collected from across Australia. Adam Shipp (Wiradjuri) of Yurbay Consultancies hosts seasonal walks to enjoy the sights and scents of each season in the gardens. Adam readily shares his expertise and verdant passion for native plants, with each tour finishing with the opportunity to sample some of the native flavours from the gardens and around the region.

Like the National Museum of Australia, consider partnering with local tour operators to offer events that revolve around your museum, both inside and outside. Then, tell your audience what’s in store with social media posts featuring promotional videos or teasers.

Underwater drones workshop with the Australian National Maritime Museum

At the Australian National Maritime Museum in Darling Harbour, Sydney, they keep things interesting with changing exhibitions plus lots of resources for craft activities and games for children of all ages. One of their very popular events is Underwater Drones, a workshop for ages nine to adult, where participants explore below Sydney Harbour, with an ocean-science educator and supplied U-Drones.

These 30-minute drone workshop sessions are offered during school holidays and can cater for one person per session or groups of up to four. Groups can have fun testing their gaming skills by challenging family and friends to see who’s the best U-Drone pilot. All participants have access to amazing underwater footage highlights to keep and share.

The whole activity is held outside the Australian National Maritime Museum, making great use of the space they have available. Are there outdoor venues near your museum that you could utilise with well-designed themes and activities?

Survivalist Sampler stitching workshops at The David Roche Foundation

The David Roche Foundation House Museum is possibly one of the greatest decorative arts collections in a private institution in Australia. In these Adelaide workshops, participants have the opportunity to develop their own survivalist sampler. Expanding upon Sera Waters’ #survivalistsampler project, it all began as a call-out on Instagram in 2020 for fellow stitchers to create their own sampler to record and reflect upon surviving this isolating time in history. The central tenet is that there is community and care to be found in stitching apart, together.

There are so many creative people to be found in your local community. You could reach out to your local arts and crafts organisations, make a few phone calls, and perhaps create some lasting relationships that will certainly encourage a creative museum community. A special series of workshops by the David Roche Foundation was hosted on Eventbrite using timed ticketing to manage the flow of participants. This museum is just one example of many event creators using Eventbrite to manage their ticketing and marketing for daily visitors and special events, all year round.

Kids Dig It! at the Abbey Museum of Art and Archaeology

At the Abbey Museum of Art and Archaeology, in Caboolture, Queensland, school holidays are a special time to use creative marketing ideas to attract lots of new visitors. With its Kids Dig It! school holiday events, this museum is very successful at doing just that.

These events offer hands-on and interactive activities for the whole family, including:

  • Archery practice
  • Battling like a medieval knight
  • Designing your own heraldry
  • Uncovering medieval artefacts
  • Enjoying a meal at the Abbey Cafe
  • and more!

You could select a theme and create a list of interactive activities that will keep parents, grandparents, and the kids all happy to spend some holiday time at your museum. Using Eventbrite’s ticketing platform, you can offer any number of events that are pre-booked, so that your visitors won’t show up on the day and be disappointed to find that the events are sold out.

Campfire Dinner Experience at the Nungarin Heritage, Machinery and Army Museum

The Campfire Dinner Experience at the Nungarin Heritage, Machinery and Army Museum is an immersive event that takes visitors back in time to WWI. Held every month on the same weekend as the community markets, their campfire dinners include entry to the museum either on the day or the day after, so people are encouraged to come and stay in the town overnight.

While sitting beside an impressive jarrah army building, visitors hear about and experience the food of the era. The words of an ANZAC in his letter home to a mate accompany the meal, and he is both funny and sad in his descriptions of his experiences.

Consider creating a recurring local market or festival event, like the Nungarin Museum in Western Australia does, to efficiently expand your marketing to a much broader target audience.

It’s time to step up your museum marketing strategy

Whether you want to reach particular sections of your audience or appeal to new audiences, Eventbrite has all the tools to help you to expand your reach and establish ongoing communication with your growing community.

Now that you know what other museums around Australia have been up to, you can use their creative museum activity ideas to plan your own museum events program. This helps you build overall awareness of your museum and grow your local connections. If you’d like more useful info about event marketing planning, event hashtags, and integrated social media advertising, head to our blog for everything you need to know about social media marketing.