Clutching a flashlight in her left hand, 9-year-old Mulki, a fifth-grade student, was looking anxious. He kept glancing at the building behind him, while his father was talking to other parents.

It was Saturday night, and they were waiting to enter the Geology Museum in Bandung, West Java. “I want to see the dinosaur,” Mulki said.

Mulki’s friend, 8-year-old Gunawan, was also ready for the adventure, wearing a headlamp. The two were talking and Gunawan said he was out to find some ghosts that night. He might have been inspired by the movie Night at The Museum he had previously watched. “I’ve never been inside during nighttime,” he said when asked why he wanted to spend his time at a museum.

Last weekend, the Geology Museum once again invited the public during its nighttime opening hours.

The program, aptly called Night at The Museum, is still the same program that was launched in 2015, the only differences being that visitors are now asked to bring flashlights and that children enjoy free admission.

“In commemoration of National Children’s Day, we came up with the theme ‘Indonesian Children Love the Museum.’ That’s why children can enter for free. Other members of the public are charged Rp 3,000 [less than US$1], or Rp 2,000 for students,” the head of the steering committee for the event, Anita Kusumayati, told The Jakarta Post.

The event organizer also afforded visitors the rare opportunity of discovering the museum’s ‘behind-the-scenes.’ “We take our visitors to the collection storage and maintenance rooms, so that they can understand the process every item goes through before it is put on display,” Anita added.

Public enthusiasm about the program was unexpectedly high. That night, the Geology Museum recorded no fewer than 4,806 visitors, including 1,913 children — which the museum refers to as “special guests” — 2,844 regular visitors, 30 university students and one foreigner.

“On regular days, we see 1,000 to 1,500 visitors at this museum,” Anita said, adding that the museum was normally open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The museum opens at night every first weekend of the month. The management hopes that the program will change people’s perception of museums being something worn-out and outmoded to a place full of excitement, insight and inspiration.

The museum, which was named Geologish Laboratorium when it was built, was designed by architect Menalda van Schouwenburg. Some 300 workers worked on the construction that took 11 months. The museum was opened in May 1929.

There are four main rooms in the museum. The Indonesian Geology and the Life History rooms are located on the first floor, while the Geology Resources and the Geological Benefits and Disasters are on the second floor.

The room that piqued the children’s interest is the Indonesian Geology room, which can only be observed using flashlights. In that room, they are asked to go on a quest to locate all the exhibits, from the model of a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton to other kinds of animal skeletons and prehistoric human skulls.

Popular

Kadin urges stability after Constitutional Court ruling

Jokowi says transition to new government to begi

BCA loan disbursement surges 17.1 percent yoy in first quarter