By Dawnika Lopez |Staff Writer|
Robert and Frances Fullerton Museum of Art (RAFFMA) turned down the lights and added their own spooky twist with the display of ancient Egyptian artifacts and art.
Holding their annual Spooky Night on Oct. 30, the evening was completed with fun activities, a museum tour, scavenger hunt, costume contest and lots of candy.
Student volunteers, staff, children and family were all dressed up and added their artistic touches for a night full of activities.
RAFFMA Outreach Coordinator Paige Taylor said, “This was my second year doing the Spooky Night, I got a better idea how to manage time and different age of kids, so we changed a few things this year to make the evening go a little smoothly and better work with the excitement of the children.”
The night began with a spooky tour of the museum. It was decorated in cobwebs and the lights dimmed to create a frightening atmosphere with sound effects.
The tour consisted of people dressed in costumes such as a mummy, to give a guest a little scare.
It got so frightened when the mummy appeared out of nowhere that I almost knocked one of the ancient artifacts.
There were plenty activities available for kids and the whole family. Such as crafting and using their imagination to create pictures of monster and ghouls.
“Spooky Night was fun. Especially for kids who came in and they were able to dress up in their creative costumes and do some activities with their parents, rather than going out in streets,” said Diana Nieto.
There was a movie showing of the 1950s mystery classic of “Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Laughing Mummy.”
While looking around the museum, there was this beautiful “altar de muertos”, translated to the altar of the dead, which is part of the Latino celebration Day of the Dead. People created an altar or small shrine dedicated for the love ones who have past way.
The altar was decorated with brightly colored sugar skulls, flowers, religious artifacts, and treats.
Later in the night, they held a costume competition for the scariest, creative and best getup for the kids.
“The best part of Spooky Night is the costume contest. The kids and the parents get really excited. We have a three judges, who are our volunteers, and decided the winners of the costumes contest. The winners were given prizes,” said Taylor.
The children wore costumes such as Sleeping Beauty, Spider girl , a little pirate, robots, and a killer doctor. They were competitive during the contest, but it was fair, the kids were given delicious treats after the event was over.
It takes weeks of planning this event for RAFFMA to be able to present Spooky Night, to be fun, friendly and educational night for every one.
Overall, Spooky Night was extremely fun and I would recommend going to future RAFFMA events.
Check out RAFFMA upcoming events on their websites, such as Music to My Eyes, presenting well-known artist David Edward Byrd, show casing his posters and album covers for Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead.
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