By Summer McCann
Pirates, witches and dinosaurs invaded BYU”s Museum of Art Monday, Oct. 29, as the museum hosted a special Halloween version of its Artful Tales.
The museum”s traditional Monday night storytelling was transformed into a spooky, bewitched event in honor of the haunted holiday.
“We”ve come before to the Monday storytelling, and we thought the Halloween night sounded like a lot of fun,” said Michael Benjamin, who came with his family dressed as characters from “The Wizard of Oz.”
Benjamin, who was the scarecrow, his wife Natalia, who played Dorothy, and his two sons, the lion and tiger, all won an award in the costume contest for their outfits.
“We have everyone but the bear,” Benjamin said.
The MOA auditorium, which was filled to capacity with people of all ages, began the night by singing Halloween songs.
Professional storyteller Rosemarie Howard, told the tale of a magic piece of black bubble gum collected by an eager trick-or-treater.
“I liked the puppet show the best. The monsters and the pumpkins were really funny,” said 8-year-old Mike Randall who came dressed as Harry Potter.
A puppet show had both children and adults laughing as a giant monster tried to carve a pumpkin with an egg-beater.
“It”s such a fun atmosphere. All of the kids have such great costumes and are so in the spirit, it makes me excited for Halloween,” said Charlotte Van Wagener, 20, a junior majoring in French teaching, who came to the event with her family home evening group.
The event also featured a costume contest in which Queen Amidala from “Star Wars” won most beautiful, and a 2-year-old bumblebee got the most original award.
“It”s definitely a much different atmosphere here tonight than usual,” said Julie Nay, a security guard at the MOA.
“There”s never this much noise or this many people running around,” she said.
After the auditorium, which holds 170, was filled to capacity, visitors were sent upstairs where Howard told the guests another scary tale.
Because of the success of this year”s Halloween Artful tales, the museum will likely hold the event again next year, said Cheryll May, public program coordinator for the MOA.
