Museum of Idaho’s monthly ‘Museum after dark’ event offers fun, food and prizes
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Local residents itching to flex their trivia muscles got an opportunity to do exactly that at “Trivia Night” Friday at the Museum of Idaho in Idaho Falls. Players came to answer questions, show off their knowledge and win prizes. But the museum staff running “Trivia Night” added a little twist to the contest.
“I think what sets our ‘Trivia Night’ apart from other trivia nights in town is that you get to use the museum as part of the trivia,” Museum spokeswoman Chloe Doucette told EastIdahoNews.com. “There are rounds that are all about general knowledge and you can come with your own skillset of the weird things you’ve cataloged in your brain for an occasion such as this. But there are also rounds where you have to use the exhibits and what’s around you and that makes for a special experience that is really interactive and a lot of fun.”
“Trivia Night” was the first event in the museum’s 2022 slate of “Museum After Dark” events. “Museum After Dark” is a program created to provide fun and educational activities for adults who love learning. People who come out to “Museum After Dark” get to enjoy an evening of fun, food and drink and, if they’re not careful, they may even learn something cool before they’re done.
“There is a wealth of stories and information about eastern Idaho and about the rest of the world that we at the museum have gathered that will never make it into an exhibit,” Museum spokesman Jeff Carr said. “‘Museum After Dark’ is a fun way to use that. You’re going to … get the darker, more irreverent side of the museum experience that your kids don’t get.”
Many “Museum After Dark events are based around competition, and that means prizes. The prizes up for grabs also add a little extra fun to “Trivia Night.”
“The prizes vary in ‘goodness’,” Carr said.
“Some of the things that are in our collection don’t really belong in our collection,” Doucette said. “Those are things we don’t plan to display but we do want to use them and this is the perfect situation to do so. Do you want to go home with some decades-old Christmas cookies? Then come to one of our ‘Museum After Dark’ events and don’t do well. We do have good prizes, too. But really, when you win a prize, do you want something you can use or something you can have a story about later? You could go home from the museum with either.”
The 2022 “Museum After Dark” schedule includes “Ancient Museum Olympics,” which will feature events that give contestans a workout both physically and mentally. There’s also “History Solved,” which will adapt the popular board games “Risk” and “Clue” into a more history-centric context.
It also includes the Museum’s popular “Haunted History Tour,” which brings to light literal and metaphorical ghosts from Idaho Falls’ past.
All the “Museum After Dark” events are designed to give people who come a unique experience.
“There’s really not anything in the area like (‘Museum After Dark’),” said Carr. “I think anyone who says ‘There’s nothing to do around here has not heard of ‘Museum After Dark.’ But it’s a great date night, people bring family, people come by themselves, people from all walks of life. It’s just a fun opportunity to have a night out that is something different from dinner or a movie or a bar.”
“We try to make (‘Museum After Dark’) specific to the museum but we also try to make it specific to our local area,” Doucette added. “So if you really want an Idaho Falls experience or an east Idaho experience, this is a great thing to do because this is something you can’t get anywhere else.”
The “Museum After Dark” schedule has events scheduled every month throughout the year. A schedule and tickets for this and future activities can be found on the website.
Museum of Idaho members get discounted tickets and other perks, like early access to “Haunted History” tickets. Click here for more information about membership.
