Skip to content

Longmont Museum's Online "Thursday Nights"

Museum staff has put together an exciting range of activities and features that can be enjoyed by patrons in the comfort of their homes.

This content was originally published by the Longmont Observer and is licensed under a Creative Commons license.

Thursday nights and other “special days” are continuing at the Longmont Museum even though the physical building is closed.  Museum staff has put together an exciting range of activities and features that can be enjoyed by patrons in the comfort of their homes.

A long-standing feature of the Museum’s Thursday Night events is Art & Sip, in which visitors participate In an art or craft class while sipping their favorite beverage.  Always sold out, the April 2nd Art & Sip session covers “the meditative art of painting your own mandala stones” and will be available to everyone on the Museum’s FaceBook page at 7:30 pm. 

Mandala coloring is known to be a sacred practice that was engaged by Tibetan monks along with a number of other cultures.

Mandala Stones Photo: courtesy of the Longmont Museum

The list of supplies needed are as follows:

  • 2 or 3 medium-sized rocks, washed and dried
  • Acrylic paints of your choice
  • Newspaper or scrap paper to cover your work surface
  • Paper plate as your paint palette
  • Paper towels
  • Water container
  • Tiniest paintbrushes you can find
  • Toothpicks
  • Q-tips
  • Scissors

We may not be able to visit the Museum in person, but we can still explore their exhibits. The Museum has created “360 Tours”, which allow us to click to guide ourselves through the exhibits, move the mouse to look around, and, in many cases, even read the labels. These are best viewed on a computer rather than a phone and there is a new exhibit each Tuesday morning on the Museum’s Facebook page.

TreeHouses: Look Who's Living in the Trees Photo: courtesy Longmont Museum

This week, the 360 tour is TreeHouses: Look Who's Living in the Trees, an exhibit from 2018.   Visitors can roam from tree to tree as they discover the many habitats that trees provide for animals large and small, and people too.

The Museum has been showing movies on Thursday nights that are always related to its current major exhibition.  This Thursday’s was scheduled to be Solaris, to complement the exhibition Terry Maker: Because the World is Round now showing at the Museum.  Solaris was created by Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky and is described as “a brilliantly original sci-fi epic”.   The crew of the Solaris space station experiences a strange phenomenon, sending them on a voyage into the darkest recesses of their minds.

Solaris can be streamed online from the Criterion Channel with a subscription or using a free 14-day trial subscription.

And the Museum hasn’t forgotten their young members and is making videos that families can watch together and engage in crafts.  The latest one is Making a Paper Plate Rainbow and is designed for ages 2-6, but older children (and even adults) can enjoy them too.  These Discovery Days @HOME use supplies that most households will already have, so save the recyclables like egg cartons, TP rolls, newspapers, etc. for this and upcoming crafts.

Main Street About 1900 Photo: The Museum' Charles Boynton Collection

For a quieter and more reflective experience, the Museum’s online historic photo collection is always available.  Exploring Longmont life throughout the town’s history is fascinating and enlightening for both adults and older children and can be accessed at https://longmont.pastperfectonline.com/.

Check out information on all of these experiences on the Museum’s website at https://www.longmontcolorado.gov/departments/departments-e-m/museum or on the Museum’s FaceBook page. in our upcoming crafts!