How can art diversify the museum audience?

Every third Thursday, the Mississippi Museum of Art Museum After Hours organises evenings packed with creative activities and games, intended to appeal to a wider, more diverse audience. The museum works with local artists, entrepreneurs and organisations to create pop-up exhibitions, food truck festivals, live music performances, games evenings and culinary experiences. By keeping things informal and accessible, the programme is designed to draw in people who would otherwise not visit the museum.
Museum After Hours welcomes people of all ages and backgrounds, focusing specifically on groups that are rarely represented in museums: the African-American community (which forms the majority in Jackson), Muslims, LGBT people and others. The pop-ups offer a platform for local and visiting artists, filmmakers, gamers and photographers. The audience co-determines the content of the programme, which is deliberately diverse to appeal to the widest possible range of people with an interest in design and pop culture.
Through a combination of lively co-creation with the public, collaboration with local artists and organisations, and the targeted embracing of under-represented groups, the museum has succeeded in attracting a wider, more diverse audience.