Luminosity of Museum Marketing Mix and the Performative Arts in Nigeria

Museums are expected to do several things at once: safeguard a people's heritage and put it on display, for study and for delight, whether that heritage can be touched or not. In practice, museum professionals the world over have concentrated on acquiring and exhibiting physical objects, to the lasting frustration of those who care about the immaterial side of culture. Nigeria's performing arts are a case in point, since they have carried the nation's culture and history faithfully across the generations. Rather than market what she holds, the Nigerian museum has been content to sell it, and the results are plain for all to see: shrinking fortunes and weak legislative backing for museum products. This paper shows how the museum can fold the performing arts creatively into its product line and put the marketing mix to work in delivering products that truly satisfy patrons. It also faces head-on the failure of the museums to create new products that would galvanise patronage, and it closes with suggestions for packaging the performing arts for the country's teeming young people and schoolchildren.