BYU hosted their celebratory museum event “Night at the Museums” for the first time in two years.
Night at the Museums, held on March 25, was a free 3-hour event in which guests were encouraged to visit every campus museum consecutively.
The annual event was a collaborative effort of all five BYU museums: the Museum of Art, Monte L. Bean Life Science Museum, Museum of Peoples and Cultures, Museum of Paleontology and the Education in Zion gallery.
Riley Lewis, Museum of Art marketing and PR manager, described Night at the Museums as “a colossal annual event featuring the very best that BYU’s five museums have to offer.”
BYU has highlighted its museums through this event for almost a decade.
According to Katy Knight, education administrator of the Monte L. Bean Museum, Night at the Museums had not been celebrated since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, so the museum directors were especially eager to host the event this year.
“We really want people to see what these museums have to offer,” Lewis said before the event. “We hope people will have an enjoyable time and learn something about the various collections in each museum.”
Alongside the exhibits within each featured museum, organizers of Night at the Museums catered refreshments and live music for visitors to enjoy.
A solo pianist played music as visitors toured the neighboring exhibits within the Museum of Art. In Education in Zion, an all-male singing group was also featured as musical entertainment.
“We were able to get a lot more performing groups unlike in the past, so that was incredible,” Education in Zion student supervisor Katie Millett said.
According to Knight, in the past the Night of the Museums’ main entertainment attraction has been a scavenger hunt. This year, each of the five museums had correlating clues in which visitors were encouraged to solve for a chance to win a prize.
Attendees who answered all the questions were given stickers which served as proof to win the final prize: a metal water bottle.
Knight said the organizers of the event wanted to specifically grab the attention of BYU students.
“We want the college students to come and see the museums,” Knight said. “A lot of them will go their whole time here at BYU and not even know there are museums here on campus.”
Students and locals filled each museum so much that refreshments started to run out within the first hour of the event.
“The turnout has been crazy good. It is crowded in there and that is how we like it,” Devon McGregor, promotions manager at the Museum of Peoples and Cultures, said during the event.
According to Knight, this year’s event had the greatest number of attendance than ever before. “The turnout has been more than we have ever had,” Knight said. “There are a lot more students than we have had in the past and that is what we want.”
BYU junior Katelyn Crawford was one of the many attendees of the March 25 event. Crawford described the Night of the Museums as a pleasant surprise.
“I honestly did not realize how many museums BYU had,” Crawford said. “It was cool to see how many fun exhibits we have all here on campus.”
Lewis and other Night of the Museums organizers said they hope the annual event is both entertaining and educational.
“We are hoping that everybody had an amazing time and learned about the wonderful campus resources,” Lewis said.
