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Campus Events

BYU museums come to life for Night at the Museums event

BYU recently celebrated its third annual Night at the Museums. Students and families spent the night visiting museums and snacking on goodies as the museums stayed open later than usual.

Jackie Adams, an event specialist, said she thinks the event was a huge success for families and students who attended.

'We love Night at the Museums because it really gives BYU students and the community a chance to experience all five of BYU's museums,' Adams said.

The Johnson family was just one of the many families in attendance. They started their museum journey at the Museum of Peoples and Cultures where they learned about arrowheads found in the Utah Valley. The Johnson family said they enjoyed learning about different cultures and looked forward to seeing what the other museums had offer.

A popular attraction in the Museum of Paleontology was a slab of sandstone that was taken from a site near Vernal, Utah. The block of stone is dated to be over 250 million years old and contained bones of prehistoric creatures. The site that this stone, and many others, were taken from was once an oasis surrounded by a desert.

Chris Thelin has been working with these slabs for the past three years and has help discover Pterosaurs and other dinosaurs and animals such as Coelophysis, and smaller types of crocodiles.

'I have worked on all of those,' Thelin said. 'The main thing I have helped discover is Pterosaurs, the flying reptile. We actually had the world expert from Italy fly in last fall and look at my work and talk about it.'

Some students took advantage of the festivities and used the event as a perfect date. Joe Means and his date, Reagan Leifson, explored the Bean Museum and said they enjoyed looking at all of the animals. Both also enjoyed the complimentary doughnuts that were offered. They visited the Museum of Art after their Bean Museum visit.

Adams said she was happy with the outcome and impact the event had and felt rewarded knowing that people had a good time.

'Every year more and more people attend,' Adams said. 'It was great seeing a ton of first-time visitors. We hope that students can look back in years to come and consider the museums an integral part of their experience here at BYU.'

The five museums that participated in the event were the Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum, the Museum of Art, the Museum of Peoples and Cultures, Education in Zion and the Museum of Paleontology. Information about future events can be found on each museum's individual Facebook page.