Sleeping under a dinosaur fossil, stepping into a painting: Museums that offer more than just a tour

Marking its 30th anniversary, the Louvre recently tied up with Airbnb to offer two lucky winners a ‘night at the museum’. Some other museums that went beyond a tour.

Grab a sleeping bag
Why sleep under the stars when you can stretch out under a giant dinosaur fossil? The Natural History Museum in South Kensington, London, offers two overnight tours (one for grownups and one for kids) where guests can tour the galleries and current exhibitions, play a pub quiz, listen to live music or watch a monster movie marathon before camping out in sleeping bags in Hintze Hall. A similar tour is offered at the National Archives Museum in Washington DC where guests can explore various historical treasures in a massive scavenger hunt and sleep near the Declaration of Independence.


In the Buff
Last year, Palais de Tokyo, a contemporary art museum in Paris, threw open its doors to nudists for a special two-hour tour. In association with the Paris Naturists Association (ANP), the museum organised the event to attract younger members and rid some of the hang-ups surrounding nudism.

The evening, which saw 161 participants, ended with a celebratory drink on the roof of the museum gallery.

Step into a painting
In 2016, the Art Institute of Chicago painstakingly recreated Van Gogh’s bedroom and rented it out for $10 a night to promote a Van Gogh exhibit.

They joined forces with Airbnb and Leo Burnett to build a full-scale, liveable model in downtown Chicago where those who rented the room would get two tickets to the exhibition. “What better way to give people a glimpse into his [Van Gogh’s] mind than to create a truly immersive, one-of-a-kind experience like this?” said Burnett’s associate creative director Pete Lefebvre.

Sweet dreams
American art critic Jerry Saltz once spent the entire night at the Guggenheim Museum in 2008 to experience a ‘Relational Aesthetics’ installation by German artist Carsten Höller titled ‘Revolving Hotel Room’.

The installation (which was part of an exhibition “theanyspacewhatever”) featured a hotel room with no walls, set on a large Plexiglass platform complete with a queen-sized bed and a guard posted nearby. According to Saltz, while the experience was a little weird, on waking, he felt that the Guggenheim “where I’d been a thousand times, looked utterly new to me. I was in love with the place”.

Caught on Camera
Conservation and restoration is an important part of a museum and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam wants you to know it. Following an exhibition marking the 350th anniversary of Rembrandt’s death, his ‘The Night Watch’ will undergo a massive restoration effort that will be live-streamed to millions worldwide.

Starting July 2019, the painting will be encased in a specially made glass chamber where visitors to the museum and millions worldwide can watch the masterpiece painstakingly restored inch by inch.

Night at the museum
On the home front, the National gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) recently started conducting guided night tours on the last working day of every month for office goers and tourists who visit India Gate.

The Chandigarh Architecture Museum hosted a similar night tour for students in November last year.