Cynthia Iburg cozies up to a dinosaur at the Museum of Nature.
It would be a night out like any other. There would be music, people chatting and mingling. Drinks would be served. It would have all the trappings of a dance club – except the decor includes dinosaur bones and displays of rocks and minerals.
That’s because instead of a downtown bar, this would take place at the Canadian Museum of Nature as a “date” destination. Starting in January, the museum will offer Nature Nocturne, a monthly series to encourage younger visitors to the museum, according to Meg Beckel, the museum’s president. She says it’s all part of an effort to encourage people to go to the museum who otherwise might not.
“We have a very loyal core which is families with young children, but what we’re missing is the young professional adult audience as well as the older professional adult audience,” she says.
Cynthia Iburg, the project manager for Nature Nocturne, says the idea behind the show is to change the way people think about the museum.
“Typically, our visitors are associated with children, and there’s no reason for this other than tradition . . . We wanted to break down that stereotype of needing to have a PhD to come to the science museum and show them that there’s a place for everybody,” she says.
In order to do that, the museum is bringing in attractions that appeal to young people. For $20 visitors will have access to the whole show, which runs from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m. The events will take place at night, will be licensed for alcoholic drinks, and feature dancing and food as well, says Beckel.
The heart of the event, however, is socializing. On the museum’s website, the event is advertised as a “date night venue” for adults and Iburg echoed that sentiment. She says there is a difference in going alone to a museum and going on a date to an event like this.
For people, she says, “It’s not about them and the artifact, it’s about them and the person they came with and that they have this experience together.”
“It does replace going out to a bar or restaurant or movie, what have you, but in a way that you’re having an experience that is different from all of those things,” she says.
Rather than just trying to get more people through the door, the event seems to be part of a larger trend to re-invent museums, says Audrey Vermette, director of programming at the Canadian Museums Association.
“I think museums are indeed trying to find innovative ways to get people through, but not just through the door to visit but to get involved with the museums," she says.
"(They) are really becoming more community centres, at the heart of their community, rather than these old dusty places.”
This won’t be the first time the Museum of Nature has hosted parties.
The museum previously held a Smirnoff Red Door party, an event Beckel says inspired the museum to look at how to get young professionals to visit again.
This time she says she’s hoping people will come back more often.
“We’re hoping that we’ll develop a following of young professionals who think it’s fun and cool and interesting to hang out at the (museum) once a month, and that they’ll continue to come back,” she said.
And if, while searching for true love under the gaze of a 65-million-year-old dinosaur skeleton, they happen to learn something, then that’s just an added bonus.