Children and students alike decked in period appropriate outfits and Halloween costumes came to participate in the “Haunting at the Museums: Garden Tea Party,” an event using a crafted mystery to guide people throughout the museums. The event was hosted by the Alabama Museum of Natural History and the Gorgas House Museum and was free to the public.
Kristin Harrell, the education outreach coordinator at the Alabama Museum of Natural History, said that Gorgas House is the oldest building on campus and a museum, which allows people to engage with both museums with “minimal” effort.
The “Garden Tea Party” blended storytelling with commissioned characters. The host of the tea party was “Mrs. Beatrice Aster,” a bumblebee who became the community planner after her husband’s death, alongside five other commissioned “creatures.” The characters drew the public into the tea party’s disarray as they explored different stations within the museums in order to decipher the mysteries.
“You arrive and something is in disarray. The characters are missing,” Harrell said. “So you have to go around the garden, which is our museum, to discover hidden clues to figure out what happened and who did what.”
Students expressed their appreciation for both the event and the museums on campus.
“It’s a really fun way to interact with people, and it’s really nice that the museum kind of creates this space for us to do so,” said Lilly Roehrig, a junior majoring in environmental science and member of the Forest Dynamics Lab that had a table of its own at the event.
Each table served as a station that presented a clue tied to the story and educated the public more about the topic it represented. The experience spanned throughout both the Alabama Museum of Natural History and Gorgas House Museum.
“It seems pretty educational. The science of the animals specifically is something that I enjoy,” said Eli Cortes, a sophomore majoring in chemical engineering.”I think it’s a great idea. And the general event, I’m just enjoying it.”
