Diversify the audience?  Yes.  Diversify the experience?  Not so much.

Generally speaking, arts audiences are asked to follow privileged Euro-centric (often described as “old” and “white”) behaviors. There are long-standing limitations:  no talking, no eating, no drinking, no touching. Sit. Watch. Listen. Clap.

There’s a strict sensibility about enjoyment – so much so, that when a theatre allows its patrons to bring in beverages, arguments ensue as though the end of civilization is nigh.

In any arts endeavor, the key is to invite participation, not ask others to follow your conventions as though they were the default.

The same holds true in the board room. “To change (something) so that it has more different kinds of people or things.” (Webster’s definition of “diversify”) denotes change in the “something,” not changing the people to assimilate to the “something.”