Andy Lien

The Minneapolis metformin 1000 mg side effects Institute of Art (MIA) has a free Third Thursday each month when they open the museum for touring in the evening hours.  Already open free-of-admission during its regular hours, the MIA is a jewel in our equal-access-to-art crown here in the Twin Cities.  But, the beauty of the evening hours is that everything changes once the sun goes down.  The art is different.  The architecture both gains and loses its shadows.  The windows that would cast a glow across the walls and statues during the daytime are dark.  The carefully planned lighting gets to shine in its supporting role.  The question remains, though, whether the art or the ghosts are the stars of the show.

Each Third Thursday seems to have a theme, depending on the month.  Last night was all about spooks and scares for Halloween.  Music was provided by Vampire Hands on the main floor near the bar and haunting activities were available throughout the Institute.  What struck my fancy was the tour of the purportedly haunted areas of the museum.  Before leaving for the event, I made sure to bone up on the history–the most helpful resource was the MIA’s own Flickr gallery with photos and stories of the hauntings.  There’s been a vision of a man with a red sweater vest, cold ghost-child hands grasping that of a visitor’s, creaking floors and doors, lights that shouldn’t have turned on, eyes that follow you across a room, a colonial bed that has been referred to as an epicenter.  For the event, we could expect tours of the Institute, the areas of concentrated activity being the Period Rooms, rooms that had been donated in toto to the Institute, disassembled at their original locations, moved, and reassembled in the museum.

I was stoked.

I’m no ghost hunter.  I’m simply curious about everything.  I’m not saying that I wouldn’t be a ghost hunter, but I think I prefer the watered-down version of it…just touring a place and being told of its paranormal history in a somewhat-offhand manner.  Practically incidental in its relevance.

So, my friend Aisha and I found ourselves a parking spot and made our way toward the brightly lit columns of the Institute.  Just being able to amble the grounds around the columned building at night was a delight.  The Asian lions, the modern angel, the illuminated tipis…both incongruously and perfectly juxtaposed.

A clear, moonlit night.

Inside, we were metformin hcl 1000 mg greeted by the Chihuly.  Usually aglow by daylight, it was dark…almost an afterthought, though no artwork ever is.

Definitely different.  Sleeping?

Moving inward, we passed on the foam red clown noses being given away and grabbed ourselves a program for the evening.  The place was packed and the band was playing, the air was oddly steamy.  As we made our way to the top floor (my method is usually top-down), I surmised from the program that there were no guided tours of the haunted spaces but a self-tour with a live guide at each of the areas of interest.  So…okay.  We’re resourceful.  We’d just run around and see what we see.

And see we did.

Knowing vaguely where the Period Rooms are, we walked toward them and enjoyed the sights.  Somewhat like a labyrinth, every corner we turned required a quick rewind to recall whether or not we’d already been there.  Eventually, we happened upon some of the Live Guides.  Women dressed in period garb told us both the ghost stories attached to the particular rooms and pieces within them as well as other fun facts about the spaces.  Delightful.  The Live Guide in The North Umberland Room was wily and fun, telling us all about the impish happenings in addition to the origins of certain phrases and terms like “threshold,” “chairman of the board,” “board room,” and the like.  Certainly nothing paranormal, but extremely satisfying for my need to know all-things-interesting.

The guide in The Connecticut Room told us all about the activity that had been experienced within it, but also let us experience it for ourselves.  Take it for what you will, but she mentioned that there was a cold spot near the fireplace…which would make sense if the fireplace had an outlet to the exterior of the building, but as it was a reconstruction in a museum, it did not.  I placed my had where she instructed…and there it was.  A very obvious drop in temperature at about the knee level by the fireplace.  I moved away quickly* and asked Aisha if she’d felt it.  Yes, she had.  She was wearing a skirt and had felt it at her ankles the entire time.  Now, knowing what I do about the manifestations of paranormal entities, I don’t know if cold spots can be constant–I’d been under the impression that if something were manifesting itself, it drew the energy out of the surrounding area, thereby making it cold for that moment at that time.  But constant?  What can I say?  It’s possible.  Anything’s possible.

And then there was Mrs. T.

Dressed in a replica of the ivory wedding gown worn by the dame in the painting, the guide told us about the painting technique used by the artist to show the depth of an ivory gown as well as some of the history of the subject and the artist.  I like a little education with my trivia.  And, true to the reports, I can’t help but agree that the eyes in the artwork did seem a little nosy…that they appeared to follow us wherever we went.  Or, that was just my narcissism.  Look at her.  Yeah.  She knows what’s what.  It’s no wonder that the guards tell a story of a ghostly dame wagging a finger at one who’d nodded off on the job.

So, we happened upon our haunted tour.  It went well, considering we were left to our own devices, which also included a tour that we were able to access from Aisha’s Droid and my iTouch on the MIA’s mobile site.  Wandering around the Institute at night left me feeling like the list of attractions was a tad bit incomplete.  Just because there might not have been any personal paranormal experiences attached to other items in the museum doesn’t mean there aren’t some scary ones.  Here’s a short list of other pieces of art that I found a little ghastly, ghoulish, chilling, or just plain creepy.  It’s yet another incomplete list, for sure, considering none of these are even on it.

Go and see for yourself.  Make your own list.  The Halloween event may have been last night, but the ghosts and their art are there year ’round.

An ancestor of Pennywise.

Vampire Hands. Scary in name, not scary in music.

I caught this out of the corner of my eye.

Startling. Offputting. Intriguing.

Nothing I cared to see closer than with the 10x Optical Zoom.

Tornado above St. Paul. Terrifying (for me).

This is called "After The Reception." To me, it looks like the bridal equivalence of an hysterical pregnancy...which is chilling to this spinster.

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*I’m a big baby.