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Museum's Adults-Only Nights Show That Alcohol and Science Are a Good Mix
BarbaraHudson writes Museums and science centers are finding that science nights with bar service are quite popular with the public. "Organizer Merissa Scarlett said almost every science center across Canada opts for adults-only nights, where visitors can explore exhibits with an alcoholic drink in hand. It's also a trend taking off in many museums, including the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, where nights dubbed Nature Nocturne transform the building into a multi-stage bar and club."
The bar is probably spendy. I wonder if i can tote in a 40?
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Private parties amongst the relics.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/nov/08/davidhencke
We create programming that's more oriented toward adults," he said, adding that this has included the chance to dissect a pig's heart.
I mean nothing like giving people who have had a few a knife and telling them to have at it.
well, Degas looks better right before closing time.
Stay at home and play WoW and watch Fox news and masturbate then. You don't have to go to interesting things.
Apparently catering to alcoholics is big business. :(
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
They serve booze now and keep the crying kiddies away these days. Therefore you are a troll.
Wow. So this is how ignorant people rationalize their own stupidity... Fascinating.
A trap for those who don't believe in science, of course. What better way to attract the ignorant and unthoughtful than offer booze? A few drinks in and all the heathenism begins to make sense.
That's certainly not true for a museum like the Exploratorium (that also has adults-only nights).
If you reply, do so only to what I explicitly wrote. If I didn't write it, don't assume or infer it.
Have gnu, will travel.
I've never understood the appeal of museums. They are the most boring place in the world to be dragged to. It's not like you can learn anything or interact with anything there. It's like people are afraid to admit they are boring because they are afraid to appear uncultured. Does anyone honestly enjoy museums?
It depends on if you're genuinely interested in the subject being presented. For me, modern art? No thanks - total snore-fest. I'd probably enjoy most any sort of science or tech themed museum though. Museums are also more fun if you make it part of an evening out, and are with someone you enjoy spending time with.
You should read the article. Patrons talked about being able to build a mini mars rover, creating a bubble that you can stand inside, and a number of other interactive, entertaining, and educational activities. Science and tech museums are often a lot more interactive than the traditional museums you're imagining where you just walk around and look at stuff in static displays. It sounded like fun to me.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
City Museum of St. Louis: Open to midnight Friday and Saturday with bar service. Thrills, Chills, and Lawsuits.
Drinks, food, talks by naturalists, guided tours of exhibits, followed by bands playing in the Hall of Mammals (nothing like seeing a band like Deerhoof in front of a mastedon) :
http://www.nhm.org/site/activi...
Been going on for a number of years and is very popular.
If your children ever found out how lame you are, they'd murder you in your sleep
I suspect there are quite a few things you don't understand.
Not true. My wife's MIT Alumni club brought Dr. Peter Diamandis in for a discussion on the X-Prize Foundation, and it was fully catered with open bar at the local science museum, which was partially open for exploration. Good time. Good enough that Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson crashed the party, with a couple of attractive grad students in-tow.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
There are plenty of captionless bits of ironmongery about I'll agree. So the intelligent visitor uses Wikepedia to start with then has some context, jargon and grounding...
Now find a curator and see if you can leverage your little fulcrum of knowledge against their lever of knowledge. When you've done this a couple of times (asked to see inside, asked how did the sizobells get the stuff to the twinkychute) you'll know exactly (a) how to get the most out of a museum and (b) give the curators the buzz of the one in thirty visitors who has a brain and asks such obvious questions they've never been asked like that before. A parking-lot of stuff isn't a museum but a basement of curious carvings can (in the right hands) be an electric delight.
...caters events all the time; my former employer had its Christmas party there every year. Buffet, music, dance band, string quartet, bar service, buskers, and horse-drawn sleigh rides in the adjoining park.
Damn, I know where I'm going next time I'm in the area. Do they serve alcohol as well? That place would be *awesome* to play in with a good buzz.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
I've never understood the appeal of museums. They are the most boring place in the world to be dragged to. It's not like you can learn anything or interact with anything there. It's like people are afraid to admit they are boring because they are afraid to appear uncultured. Does anyone honestly enjoy museums?
It depends on if you're genuinely interested in the subject being presented. For me, modern art? No thanks - total snore-fest.
Well, I won't try to argue you off of your opinion of modern art, but assuming you're talking about physical media of modern art turning you off, how about modern dance? Same? Snore fest? How about a modern dance that recounted the march of evolution from fish with legs to the next stage of humans after ours? I saw that in Philadelphia recently, from one of my favorite choreographers, it was brilliant, and some people got a better appreciation for evolution and what it means to humans.
I love science and technology, but without the classical and modern arts, it's kind of hollow.
I've never understood the appeal of museums. They are the most boring place in the world to be dragged to. It's not like you can learn anything or interact with anything there. It's like people are afraid to admit they are boring because they are afraid to appear uncultured. Does anyone honestly enjoy museums?
It depends on the museum.
For example, the Exploratorium on Pier 15 in San Francisco is super interactive. And the Computer History Museum in San Jose is also very good. For the more "boring" museums, it really depends on who you go to the museum with. If you're not enthusiastic about a particular museum, you need to accompany someone who is enthusiastic about that museum. That person can be your guide. And if you're lucky enough, some of that enthusiasm can rub off on you a little. Just be careful thought, pick someone you like who is genuinely enthusiastic about that museum, not someone who only sees their interest in a museum as some kind of status symbol for them self. That can happen too.
That being said, if the choice is between drinking at a crowded night club, or drinking at a museum, I'd pick drinking at a museum always. Museum parties usually have more space, by that same token they're also less crowded, and they're usually less noisy than bars or night clubs. Also, museums already tend to be in prime real estate areas and city centers, so if they didn't have adult-only parties during those hours, all that infrastructure and all that space would go to waste during those times outside of their regular visiting hours.
Also, if it's between drinking at the museum and drinking at the zoo, I'd pick drinking at the museum any time. At least at the museums, the stuffed animals are not likely to escape their enclosures and kill the drunk assholes that try to provoke them thus ruining the experience for everyone else.
I wonder how it's possible to find out. Hmmmm....
If you reply, do so only to what I explicitly wrote. If I didn't write it, don't assume or infer it.
That would be because the kinds of museums that are actually interactive and hands-on are generally science and technology oriented.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
It's much more fun to ask the person who brightened my day with such a tantalizing tidbit.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
Depends on how many dollar bills I have in my pockets....
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
The Exploratorium in San Francisco, one of the finest science museums in the world, runs adults-only programs every Thursday night, with 50% off admission too.
I can verify that visiting the Museum of Science and Industry here in Chicago after a few toots is nothing but a blast. Get a few of your friends, pass around a liter of vodka in the parking lot and go straight to the gigantic model train set on the first floor. Don't miss the huge pendulum in the stairway and the tours of the German U-Boat and coal mine. Also the "whispering booth" parabolic sound mirrors. If it's spring time, go visit the formal Japanese garden just a few blocks from the museum. When your done, walk West along the plaisance until you get to Laredo Taft's spooky-ass "Fountain of Time" sculpture at the far end of the Midway. Then you can go up to Ribs'n'Bibs on 53rd street for the most magnificent burnt ends or hot links you've ever tasted.
Best drunk museum experience ever. Highly recommended. Way back in the day I went there on 'shrooms and it was also quite fun.
Of course, all that stuff is behind me now, but thankfully my memory is still pretty...um... ...what was I talking about?
You are welcome on my lawn.
Dice is desperate and will take money from anyone, including Russian hackers.
We love their adult programs. Alcohol, live music, demos, lectures, activities, and the museum is open for strolling.
Plenty do. Art museums started doing regular cocktails/music nights to help attract new members years ago. Most folks just show up to make the scene, but enough end up as donors that it's caught on with other types of museums.
Who hasn't seen people stoned out of their gourd waiting in line for the Laserium show?
I work at a museum where we have been running an adult program called MOSH After Dark (Museum of Science and History and yeah I know that sounds like a Cinemax show) for a few years now. Usually "adult level" topics but that ones that sell out that quickest are Home Brewing and How rum is made (you get to make your own rum flavors and get to have 1 liter of it) It's mostly 20 to 30's year olds and is very popular. Since I work in the plane arium I'm happy they don't have us run shows for them. Laser crowds are already halfway gone I can only image a totally buzzed entire theater. I'm sure our clean up staff would LOVE that.
It's awesome, too. A great way to meet other science minded folk.
The "attractive" part did you in.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
Best way to get academics to show up? Open bar.
Seriously. They all know it. Habits learned as grad students die hard. Free booze is academia's lubricant. Big cheese principle investigators with their names on the lab will still walk through coals for a free drink.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
at Science World (Now Telus World of Science bleh) and the Planetarium in the late 90's in Vancouver.
by TheSpoom (715771) Uncaring Linux user here. I have nothing to add to this but please continue. *munches popcorn*
Why would I as an adult want to go to any museum except on adult's only night if it's offered? Museums are annoying when there are children there. A nice cultured night out with adults at a fancy museum with no children sounds like an excellent idea to me. I've been to several private parties at museums that were adults only that were fantastic. Get to see everything and interact with people without tour groups plowing through and wrecking the ambience.
they should allow pot.
Oh, don't get me wrong. I appreciate many traditional arts, crafts, or paintings, although I probably wouldn't go out of my way to go see them. I do enjoy classical symphonic music, theater, and musicals. I've never been to an opera, but I suspect I might enjoy it. Ballet or just about any other sort of dance? Yeah, not my thing at all.
Everyone has things they enjoy and don't enjoy. I'm not sure why you feel classical and/or modern arts are necessary to enjoying science and technology. Those seem fairly orthogonal to me. Sure, they *can* cross over on occasion, but they don't have to. Some people simply find science, math, or technology beautiful or enriching on its own. I don't see anything "hollow" about that.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
...has been doing this for a few years now, it's called Jurassic Lounge, http://www.jurassiclounge.com/ and seems to attrack quite a number of people. If this helps get people more interested in science and at the same time helps raise money for the museum then why not.
As a matter of fact, the women of STEM do tend to be gravitationally quite "attractive" due to their galactic masses.
Why do you think scientists attend symposia?
symposium [sim-poh-zee-uh m]
noun, plural symposiums, symposia [sim-poh-zee-uh]
1. a meeting or conference for the discussion of some subject, especially a meeting at which several speakers talk on or discuss a topic before an audience.
2. a collection of opinions expressed or articles contributed by several persons on a given subject or topic.
3. an account of a discussion meeting or of the conversation at it.
4. (in ancient Greece and Rome) a convivial meeting, usually following a dinner, for drinking and intellectual conversation.
5. (initial capital letter, italics) a philosophical dialogue (4th century b.c.) by Plato, dealing with ideal love and the vision of absolute beauty.
One of the coolest things I ever got to do during my stint at HP was dinner and drinks at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History as a private event. Various buffets and bars scattered around the museum. Had no idea you could rent the Smithsonian like that.
Martini bar at the Hope Diamond? How freakin' cool is that?!
Science North and Dynamic Earth in Sudbury, Ontario does this every couple of months. And they are themed. First one I went to at Science North was themed for mixology, and it show cased the science behind mixing things together.
The cool thing about them is that they are catered, so there was food available for purchase, there is alcohol(beer, wine, spirits), there are some shows in the theatre in the middle of the upper floors, and you get to enjoy the exhibits WITHOUT CHILDREN PRESENT!(greatest part ever!!)
The Cleveland Museum of Art has these once or twice a month. They have a bar, a DJ/band and some little DIY art based on the exhibits. It was super classy. I'd highly recommend it.
The local museum here offered a series on "Science of Food & Brew" - one night a week during the summer they had different presentations on how to make beer, it's history, different flavors (and how they are made), and basically food & drink pairing. I think Mead and Cider were also covered.
And of course - each night included samples by local companies.
It is probably the abundance of Labatt 50 that is drunk in Quebec that throws people off.
How about being able to enjoy something without screaming kids running all over?
I'm not sure why you feel classical and/or modern arts are necessary to enjoying science and technology...
You misunderstand, I don't think the arts are necessary to enjoying science and technology, although they certainly do that. My point was that without the arts, in addition to science, technology, and lots of other things, *human existence* is kind of hollow.
I would much rather see Mastodon in front of a deer hoof.