It’s not without precedent. The Tate in London has held a similar event, as has the Australian Museum in Sydney. Closer to home, ScienceWorks in Spotswood ran an adults evening called Big Kids’ Night Out. Now the Melbourne Museum is trialing the same idea.
“You always stand aside for kids,” explained David Perkins, Senior Programs Officer at the Melbourne Museum. But the programmers noticed that the ScienceWorks event was well attended. “So we thought, ‘Oh, there are people who want to come to the museum in the evening. We should do it.’”
A whole range of demonstrations and talks are planned, including a taxidermy demonstration.
No-one will be actually stuffing animals on the night, Perkins clarified. However, there will be a touchable display featuring foam inserts that go inside skins, rubber death masks and vintage photos.
Taxidermy is mostly for research. “They prepare specimens so scientists will be able to look atthem for the next hundred years,” he said. In fact, taxidermists helped the war effort during the Second World War by making camouflage nets for soldiers. They were used to making fake leaves and similar items, so they had handy transferable skills.
There are lots of challenges in taxidermy. “How do you prepare a whale that’s washed up on the beach?” asked Perkins. “What do you do when someone brings in some roadkill?” These are some questions that scientists will answer on the night.
Other demonstrations will happen live, such as python handling and feeding. “One of our galleries has live animals in it,” Perkins explained. “Part of [that department’s] job is to feed all the animals. We’ve got a python who’s due to be fed, so they said, ‘We’ll feed him on the night.’”
A dissection will also take place in front of the punters. “It’s incredible that it’s not gory,” Perkins said. “It’s just a scientist at work, and a sneak peek into their world.”
Plus, there will be a talk on the mating rituals of insects. “Some insects have some really extreme, really interesting mating rituals,” Perkins said. “There’s some that eat the male straight after.”
Paleontologist Dr Eric Fitzgerald will give a presentation. “He spends his life going out and finding fossils, discovering new dinosaurs,” Perkins said. “He can take people through one of the galleries and say, ‘Do you know how we got this fossil?’ Or, ‘Do you know what we’re looking at here?’”
The idea of these talks and demonstrations is to show the stories behind the exhibitions. Visitors don’t always realise that the museum’s purpose is not only to put on exhibitions; it also houses substantial collections and makes them available for research.
“Exhibitions are really the tip of the iceberg in terms of the collections,” Perkins said. “The collection’s main use is, say you’re in Queensland and you’re studying paleontology and you want to access a certain fossil. It might be kept in our museum collection so come down here and work with a couple of paleontologists. There’s all this work that you never see.”
Even so, plenty of exhibitions will be open for visitors on the night. There’s Wild (with animals and birds), 600 Million Years (which showcases life in Victoria since it began), Dynamic Earth (featuring minerals and rocks), Marine Life (including a giant squid) and Bugs Alive which showcases live creepy crawlies.
It sounds like a lot will be happening but the programmers are careful to make sure it’s not all on at once. Events are staggered so that if one demonstration is busy, something else will be starting in five minutes. Plus, scientists’ areas of expertise overlap. Many of them are happy that the dinosaur talk, for example, might follow the bird dissection, which gives them a chance to refer to each others’ work.
Of course, the talks are optional and visitors can also explore the galleries at their own pace. While all this is happening, a bar will be set up and food and drinks will be available.
This event is running as a pilot to see how well it works. Perkins is keen to make these evenings run more often but it will depend on the number of people attending the trial. “We could do them in different galleries. We’ve got social history as well as natural history galleries, and we’ve got touring exhibitions that come through. Mesopotamia is coming in May.”
Good food and drinks, ambient music, all the hidden treasures of the museum, eminent experts to explain things to you, and no children in your way. The Melbourne Museum SmartBar sounds like a pretty clever idea.
BY ELIZABETH REDMAN
