With the semester workload increasing and Valentine’s Day fast approaching, I decided to participate in the Stanley’s Night at the Museum series: “A Week of HeARTs.” It was an entertaining way to learn more about the museum while providing a quick break from my studies.
The Night at a Museum is a program designed for UI students to learn more about the museum and visit when the museum is open late on Thursdays. Stanley’s “A Week of HeARTs” was the first Night at the Museum series to last the entire week.
Consisting of Valentine’s, or Galentine’s, Day activities, the week-long program included a take-and-make bag filled with crafts and snacks, a scavenger hunt, and paper hearts to leave in front of your favorite artworks.
Upon entering, I was offered a bag filled with many objects including candy, ribbons, pink and red stationary with envelopes, stickers, and a paper containing information regarding the Night at the Museum series.
What piqued my interest were the instructions included for how to construct an origami heart. The instructions were very detailed and contained diagrams to follow along. As someone who loves origami, constructing the heart took me less than five minutes and made for a fun, late-night activity.
In talking with Annelies Knight, the Campus Engagement Coordinator and the mind behind this program, I was encouraged to participate in the scavenger hunt.
“[The paper HeARTs] were inspired by the Minneapolis Institute of Art,” Knight explained. “They have been doing that for ten years now.”
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On one side, the scavenger hunt booklet consisted of four miniature pictures of artworks you had to find and list the title and the artist. On the other side, I had to find four artworks relating to the Valentine-themed prompts.
I must confess I am not very good at scavenger hunts, but I did end up finding the title of one of the paintings in this one. However, it was still an enjoyable experience to walk through the galleries and view all the other artworks.
Perhaps the most unique piece of artwork in the museum was the Fantasy Coffin (Fish) by Eric Adjetey Anang, a large fish sculpture that is bright pink and very detailed. While I enjoyed the artwork, it was clear someone else had too, because a paper heart was lying right in front of it.
As I walked through the galleries, I took note of the other paper hearts lying in front of various artworks. The artwork with the most hearts was Keith Haring’s “A book full of fun,” with a total of 3 hearts, and it was easy to see why. A whimsical painting filled with color and Haring’s signature drawings, it seemed to embody the fun listed in the title.
At the end of my trip, I left my paper heart in front of my favorite artwork at the museum: Tingari Cycle by Ronnie Tjampitjinpa. It was a vivid orange painting with textured patterns of squares inside squares as well as horizontal and vertical lines in the middle section of the painting.
Overall, Stanley’s “A Week of HeARTs” was an entertaining and relaxing program with a variety of activities to celebrate the romantic holiday. It was truly a fun way to experience all the artworks the museum displayed and made it feel interactive with the community of art enjoyers who had traveled the same path I had on the scavenger hunt.
Knight hoped these activities would encourage UI students to be more comfortable visiting the museum.
“Sometimes you don’t want to spend 30 minutes looking at art and sometimes you just want to [do an activity],” Knight said. “It gives students a reason to come in and it’s a little less intimidating.”