Last year, ASU Art Museum worked with New York City-based consulting group Museum Hack to develop a small event that would draw in new millennial audiences and generate deeper visitor engagement through creative, sharable activities. Through this collaboration, Escape the Museum was born. Based on the popular concept of Escape Rooms, Escape the Museum challenged museum-goers to take selfies, locate artworks and answer riddles in order to solve an art heist and win their freedom. The first Escape the Museum event sold out within three hours of going live on Facebook, which was the most enthusiastic response to an event the museum had seen in its history. Of the attendees surveyed, 68 percent were first-time visitors and 75 percent were millennials or students. Because of this unanticipated popularity, the one-off event was converted into a series that continued through 2018. The museum’s consultancy with Museum Hack was generously supported by the Virginia G. Piper Charitable Trust through a $72,000 grant dispersed over a 12-month period. The ASU Art Museum/ Museum Hack partnership was covered in Bloomberg Businessweek as well as several local media outlets.
ASU Art Museum teams with Museum Hack to engage visitors
“It’s a nice combination between an educational self-guided tour and a fun use of our really unique space.”
See more photos from the Escape the Museum event in the slideshow below: