SMALL MUSEUMS, BIG OUTREACH: DEMONSTRABLE METHODS OF INCREASING OFF-SITE VISITATION AND INTERACTION

While museums often focus on increasing their on-site visitation, off-site visitation can be an ideal way for smaller museums to expand their programming while on tighter budgets. Over the past three years, the Western Science Center, a natural history museum in Hemet, CA, has greatly increased its off-site visitation. In 2015, the museum’s offsite outreach numbers were effectively zero; in 2018, it had increased to 20,000 people. This is the result of a concentrated effort by the institution to prioritize outreach that takes place outside of the museum building - thus furthering its mission to educate the region about local geology and paleontology, regardless of where these interactions take place. WSC has set up interactive off-site exhibit spaces at any event where people congregate - from comic book conventions, air shows, and more. By offering a hands-on experience through 3D prints and resin casts, partnering with other museums (such as the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology), and making off-site outreach a specific budget item, the Western Science Center has made demonstrable progress in increasing off-site visitation that can utilized by other institutions.