SAD, SICK, AND SENSATIONAL STORIES: A REFLECTION ON THE ROLE OF HORROR MUSEUMS

Museum Mysteries | Jefimija Vujcic

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What do haunted places, clowns, microbes, breakups, cursed objects, and supernatural creatures all have in common? Besides the obvious creepy factor, they have also all had exhibits or entire museums dedicated to them at one time or another. Horror museums are a phenomenon widely discussed in movies, television, YouTube videos, news articles, and tourist websites. While they are perhaps little understood, beyond the sensational aspect, they do help us grasp the reflective role of museums in our societies.

A model of the bloodsucking creature Yara-ma-yha-who (originating among indigenous Australians). / Bloodsuckers: Legends to Leeches (ROM feature exhibit, November 2019–March 2020). / Photo courtesy of the editor.  

The idea for this blog post actually came about a few months ago, when I was watching an episode of The Good Place. In order to stay spoiler free, let’s just say some characters end up on the run in hell (yes, literally!). In disguise, they find themselves stuck in a hall of the “Museum of Human Misery” where animated human dioramas depicting low-level torture form the vast majority of exhibits. Their charade is up when one brand new diorama is unveiled — featuring our heroes torturing one another. Although certainly strange without context, this scene highlights a trait of many museums — the ability to confront the best and worst of ourselves (usually referring to the loftily imagined ‘humankind,’ rather than the very literal direction the show takes!). 

The museum in “Black Museum” (the finale of the fourth season of Black Mirror) similarly serves as a mirror for the worst parts of a society set in the horrifyingly not-so-far-off future. Without giving too much away, many objects in this museum don’t just represent human stories — but actual elements of human consciousness. As the enthusiastic curator/docent says, there is a “sad, sick story behind almost everything” in the museum. A show like this, much like horror museums or other controversial sites of dark tourism, can “tell us a lot about what it is to be human.” Further, also according to a professor researching the phenomenon, tourists of these places have the opportunity to “reflect on and try to better understand the evil that we’re capable of.”

A framed explanation of the linguistic origin of the word "vampire." / Bloodsuckers: Legends to Leeches (ROM feature exhibit, November 2019–March 2020). / Photo courtesy of the editor.  

If you search for horror museums, you’d find tourist-oriented top-10 or top-20 lists with museums right around the world. One in particular, the Warren Occult Museum formerly located in Monroe, Connecticut (but recently closed due to zoning violations) is closely linked to well-known horror films. Reportedly filled with cursed objects that formed the basis of movies such as Annabelle (a doll that is perhaps the most famous of the collection) or the Conjuring series, it was a popular destination for various YouTubers as well (with about 3 million views on a segment of Buzzfeed Unsolved).

Further, according to such lists, museums focusing on one particular scary or gross object are quite popular. Themes include ventriloquism (Fort Mitchell, Kentucky), disgusting food (Malmo, Sweden) and clowns (Leipzig, Germany). One noteworthy variant of these object-themed horror museums focuses on the medical sciences. These gore-filled exhibits include those located on the sites of hospitals (a former operating theatre, in London, England) and those dedicated to dentists (also located in London, England), pharmacies (New Orleans, Louisiana), microbes (Amsterdam, Netherlands), locks of hair (Cappadocia, Turkey), parasites (Tokyo, Japan), brains (Bengaluru, India), devastating breakups (Zagreb, Croatia and LA, California), and death (as one medical museum is known colloquially, located in Bangkok, Thailand). This idea of body-based horror also conjures images of wax museums, which reportedly “would not be complete” without a chamber of horrors. Perhaps the most horrific type of all are the ones linked to historically grim places or practices. These include museums dedicated to medieval crime (Rothenburg, Germany), magic and witchcraft (Cornwall, England), and torture (Amsterdam, Netherlands), among others. 

A movie poster of Dracula from the early 1930s. The ROM exhibit It's Alive! Classic Horror and Sci-Fi Art from the Kirk Hammett Collection (July 2019–January 2020) did a good job discussing the xenophobia and racism inherent in many classic early horror films. / Photo courtesy of the editor. 

Finally, museums or exhibits dedicated to the dead can also be quite commonly found – from Sicilian catacombs to shrunken heads in Oxford, England. Notably, the Pitt Rivers Museum actually very recently (in September 2020) permanently closed their gallery of shrunken heads, as part of their efforts to decolonize their institution. Due to this connection to colonization and to othering, this deserves an entirely separate conversation – one which I will explore in an upcoming blog. What is worth noting at the present is how, by looking at the sordid histories of some of these earliest collecting practices, it is clear that horror has always had a place in the museum. 

COMBINING HORROR, HISTORY AND HALLOWEEN

Program Reviews | Samantha Kilpatrick

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In search of a Halloween event to review for this column, I finally decided on 'Legends of Horror: 'Vampire Circus', presented by Captain Morgan at Casa Loma'.

While trying to summarize the experience, I kept coming back to my sister's review of Mamma Mia 2: "Do you want to see a movie musical titled 'Mamma Mia 2: Here We Go Again?' If yes, you're going to enjoy this movie."

Similarly: Do you want to go to 'Legends Of Horror: Vampire Circus, Presented By Captain Morgan at Casa Loma?' Do you want a fun horror romp without much history or fact? If you do, you will enjoy the experience.

My My, How Can I Resist Ya. Entrance to the experience.
Photo courtesy of Samantha Kilpatrick. 

This experience was void of guides, in cloaks and hushed voices, speaking of grisly murders a hundred years past. It was not a tale of cold spots, and mysterious apparitions, and small objects going missing. It was a carnival haunted house. One of the groups in front of us included a man who brought a rubber chicken with us, who would squeak it at his companions when they were being 'chicken'. This set the mood. It's a fun group event; horror, like joy or a bottle of wine, is best enjoyed shared.

The horror maze itself was reasonably by-the-book. The maze included flashing lights, smoke machines, actors jumping out of bushes and from behind corners, hanging 'bodies' to push past, and animatronics rigged up to motion detectors to lunge at the visitor on their way past. Themes ranged all over the place. If you want a smorgasbord of horror, with everything from Phantom of The Opera, to werewolves, to cannibals, ghosts and demon children, Legends of Horror has you covered.

One of the performers in the haunted house, juggling flaming devil's sticks. Impressive, absolutely. Scary? The jury's out. Photo courtesy of Samantha Kilpatrick.  

There were also many acrobats, I'm entirely not sure why. They veered mostly away from the 'scary circus' theme, but still included a number of incredible acrobats, some on aerial devices and trampolines. I think I spotted only one murderous clown and no allusions to any of the other traditional horror elements of the circus. The acrobats felt included to simply bring credence to the subtitle of the show this year; contributing to the production value, but certainly not the fright of the experience.

After about forty-five minutes walking through various horror experiences in the grounds, you find yourself actually inside Casa Loma for the first time. Your first glimpse inside the castle itself is a bar.

In case you wanted a fortifying shot or a meal before going on to the rest of the Legends of Horror, or just to disrupt the mood. Photo courtesy of Samantha Kilpatrick. 

The second half of Legends of Horror takes place in Casa Loma rather than just on the grounds, and it is the piece of the experience I most wanted to talk about. The second half of the trip attempts to tap into the actual history of Toronto with the exact same level of tact and production value that the rest of the house had displayed.

That is to say: costumed actors, smoke machines, special effects and jump scares, set against the backdrop of actual historical events. It was so dark in the tunnel it was difficult to take photos, so please bear with me a moment while I talk about the exhibition on display, and how it was used in Legends of Horror.

"Toronto, The Dark Side" a permanent exhibition in the Casa Loma tunnels. The tunnel is covered on both sides by photos from The Toronto Archives, blown up and sorted into different 'Dark Sides' of Toronto's past, including fires, the depression, and Toronto's first plane crash Most notably was the photos titled 'the Plague Years', which were photos of real children treated for unnamed diseases at Sick Kids Hospital- given that the photos in question were from the 1920s, typhus? Cholera? Smallpox? Just getting vaccines?

Making all your nightmares come true 😈#LegendsOfHorror... . . . #halloween #scary #haunted #hauntedhouse #halloweencostume #casaloma #toronto #yyz #the6 #dineto #torontofoodie #torontoblogger #the6 #quote #quotes #the6ix #yyzeats #torontofood #foodieto #torontoeats #torontoevents #vaughan #torontophoto #seetorontonow #mississauga #brampton #explorecanada #gta

A post shared by Legends Of Horror (@legends_ofhorror) on Oct 31, 2018 at 4:53pm PDT

Legends of Horror's Instagram post about Casa Loma, featuring their intervention in the tunnels. 

Regardless of the facts of the photos, they served as the backdrop to the same sorts of effects that the rest of the experience featured. The photo was framed by a 'cage' of plastic bars, convincingly rusted. Between the photo and the viewer, was a bloody fake body on a bed which lurched at the visitor, and a mannequin of a girl in a bloody, old-timey dress covered in sores was lit by a menacing red light. Again, I emphasize: the backdrop was a blown-up black and white photo of a children's ward at a hospital circa 1920, and the foreground was 'look at how scary sick children are.'

Photos of the aftermath of the fires in Toronto's history were subject to their own genre-appropriate treatment. Red and yellow lights, crackling sound effects, a full-body replica of a man with horrible burns.

I spent the first half of the experience wishing that the Legends of Horror would engage more with the actual history of Casa Loma, and the second half deeply regretting my wish. I'm not sure if there is a tasteful way to plug into actual lived tragedy for the purposes of provoking titillating and exciting horror for the viewer, but I am certain that this isn't it. Perhaps it's unfair to demand a haunted house experience treat historical figures with the respect they deserve. In that case, I would vastly prefer they hung sheets over the photos and had an actor with a chainsaw chase us through the tunnel. I think this is the first time that I have found historical context detract from an experience rather than add to it.

Legends of Horror was exactly as advertised: a high quality, high budget, horror experience. But it certainly wasn't a historic experience, and it didn't tap into any ghosts that may have been haunting the premises. And it was weakest when it was trying to be.

GIRLS WHO LIKE ‘URBAN DECAY' AND SOCIAL THEORY: THE JOY OF ATLEIGH

OBJECT OF THE WEEK

BY: KESANG NANGLU

Halloween is over, and this year I spent my favourite holiday finishing up a mid-term paper and falling asleep with a belly full of Aeros and Kit Kats. Weeks ago, when I still thought I'd be spending my halloween out partying, i.e. before I came to fully realize the level to which I would procrastinate on my assignment, I thought about last-minute costume ideas. My friend, artist Atleigh Homma had me covered.

Homma is a Toronto artist working in painting, video, and performance. Her practice is concerned with issues of identity and feminism, explored through popular culture. Since 2016, she has been creating Youtube videos on her channel, “The Joy of Atleigh" (after Bob Ross' legendary instructional TV show, “The Joy of Painting"), where she assumes the role of a blogger and “beauty guru".

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Using the framework of Youtube beauty culture (and a fair bit of kitsch), her videos recall other new media artists who have broken ground through working within the social media sphere (think Ryan Trecartin's early YouTube videos or Jon Rafman's “Kool-Aid Man in Second Life" project). Homma's videos distinguish themselves through their approachability – they combine silliness with sincerity, responding to the social issues that most deeply impact her personal life.

In her “GRWM" (Get Ready With Me), she combines a makeup tutorial with a candid discussion of the politics of social climbing in the art world. In “What Inspires Me", she gushes about her love of Instagram, name-dropping in her list of inspiring people, Kim Kardashian, Rihanna, sculptor David Altmejd, and photographer, Rineke Dijkstra. As a YouTube personality, Homma rejects the idea that women are ever one-or-the-other – selfie-taking makeup-lovers or smart, critically engaged social theorists.

“Costumes For Artists" is a playful examination of the practice of paying homage, and how we risk losing meaning and intention through the act of reproduction. Beginning with a demonstration of how to recreate Matisse's Green Stripe painting with face paint, Homma describes the work like a newbie art-lover (“I love the Fauvist movement!"), before abruptly switching gears to an off-beat DIY Dijkstra costume, recommending that viewers don a bikini and stand contrapposto (green screen, optional).

Screenshot still from "Costumes For Artists"

Her final costume has Homma dressing up as contemporary painter and social media celeb Chloe Wise, who has since seen the video and shared her reaction on Instagram (in a sense, bringing it all full-circle):

See other videos from the series on her Youtube channel, and don't forget to “like, comment, and subscribe"!

THE REAL GHOSTS OF TORONTO

GHOSTS OF TORONTO'S PAST

BY: KATIE PAOLOZZA

Seeing as this will be my last posting before Halloween, I thought it appropriate to explore the ghosts of the past in a more literal way. Canada may be one of the youngest developed nations on the planet, but we have our own extensive lexicon of spooky stories.

First I want to delve a little into why we're so preoccupied with ghost stories in the first place, and why it's been such an enduring cross-cultural fixation.

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Joseph O. Baker and Christopher D. Bader wrote a fascinating paper in 2014 called "A Social Anthropology of Ghosts in Twenty-First-Century America," where they posit that supernatural entities are important cultural constructs:

                                     By definition, ghosts violate a number of binaries held as 

                                     central tenets of human, and especially Western, thought. 

                                     Primary examples include body/soul, life/death, past/present,                                                                       presence/absence, human/inhuman, and material/ethereal. 

                                     This violation of fundamental categories of thought, this 

                                     ‘in-between-ness’ (liminality) lends spirits a potentially powerful 

                                     cultural position onto which varying cultural manifestations can 

                                     be projected.

Another, simpler way of looking at it is this: when we stop dismissing the concept of ghosts and spirits as foolish superstition, it becomes clear that we have no way to properly classify them in any empirical sense. Therefore they are malleable concepts and can be shaped and twisted into whatever we need them to be as a culture. 

This is also why Toronto is such an interesting place to ghost-hunt. The city has grown so much both physically and as a culture in such a short span of time; relatively new parts of the city are already dead and gone with ghosts of their own. Look at these views of the skyline in 1914 and 1990, from the ever bountiful blogTO:

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I remember what the city looked like in the 1990s, and at first glance it looks pretty much the same. But look at this photo from last year:

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There isn't one neighbourhood you can visit that isn't mired in construction, which in turn ratchets up the anxiety on the streets and on the TTC. Things have been real tense lately, and I personally think that one reason the business of Halloween has grown so exponentially the last few years is because culturally we are in greater need of escape and catharsis. That's true of Toronto, and that's true of western and global culture in general. I don't share these ghost stories to exploit legitimate tragedies, I share them to fill the void of drudgery and uncertainty with something deliciously extrasensory.

O Torontonians, we are truly spoiled with our share of the macabre. Does everyone remember Mr. Christie? He made good cookies and did his part to develop the city as we know it today, but after he was interred in Mount Pleasant Cemetery he gave his business and mansion to his son, who supposedly locked his mistress in a secret room hidden behind a panel so he could visit her at his leisure. She eventually hung herself, and her body was then smuggled out. 

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The building is now Regis College, and the space where the poor woman was rumoured to have been kept prisoner is referred to as Room 29, with wildly varying legends about how her and the younger Mr. Christie's ghosts haunt the grounds. A popular article about the story can be found here. 

Has anyone ever eaten at the Keg Mansion? Diners have reported seeing the ghost of a woman, maybe Lillian Massey, maybe her devoted maid, in the upstairs halls and in the bathroom. People have also reported seeing/hearing children run and laugh around the main staircase. I've been there several times and have never seen a thing. 

I've also never seen any hint of the ghosts that haunt University College, despite numerous reports of students seeing both Paul Diabolos and the slain Ivan Reznikoff roaming the quad. Visit this page and this page for a more detailed history of U of T ghosts.

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I can't speak for anyone else, but I like the idea of ghosts or any bonafide supernatural activity because I like knowing that we have limitations as a species. I tend to follow empiricism and be highly skeptical, but I would love to be proven wrong. I would love for something beyond the realm of human understanding to exist and confound us in all our righteous glory as an intellectual species. I don't ever want my search for truth to come to an end, or be so vain as to think I can truly know it all.

Besides, who doesn't love a good mystery?

References

Baker, Joseph, and Christopher Bader. 2014. "A Social Anthropology of Ghosts in Twenty-First-Century America." Social Compass 61 (4): 569-593, 584-                                5. http://resolver.scholarsportal.info/resolve/00377686/v61i0004/569_asaogita.

COZYING UP TO FALL: WHAT'S HAPPENING WEDNESDAYS OCTOBER EDITION

WHAT'S HAPPENING WEDNESDAYS

BY: KELLY MANIKOTH

Hello and welcome to the Fall Edition of What’s Happening Wednesdays, where I highlight events occurring in the city and the surrounding area. I hope that everyone is excited to start a new academic year after a fun and restful holiday. Writing the Summer Edition of this column was so enjoyable as it gave me a chance to explore all this beautiful city had to offer, so I’m very happy to continue writing for my final year at the University of Toronto!

Autumn has always been a season of inspiration for me. With its crisp blue skies and leaves drenched in red, orange, and yellow, nature takes on the vibrancy of an oil painting. It’s a season for afternoons filled with baking, drives up to Rattlesnake Point to marvel at the changing leaves, exploring haunted houses, and festive meals of thankfulness with family and friends.

Below I’ve listed some events that will help make the most of this gorgeous season.

1. Nuit Blanche Toronto 2017 - Many Possible Futures

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There is nothing I love more than a night full of art! Nuit Blanche is an annual event where artists take over the city for a single night, transforming Toronto into a living art gallery with contemporary installations in various public spaces. In its 12th edition, Nuit Blanche’s 2017 theme of Many Possible Futures will feature over a hundred artists predicting the artistic landscape for Canada’s next 150 years.

There will be 90 projects allocated over the cityscape. One exhibition to check out is Life on Neebahgeezis; A Luminous Engagement, which features five projects curated by Maria Hupfield, a Brooklyn-based artist and member of the Anishinaabek Nation from Wasauksing First Nation, Ontario. Included in this project is Laxa’ine’ gigukwdzikasi’ gigukwas Hayałiligase’, The Many Large Houses of the Ghosts) , by Canadian artist Marianne Nicolson. The work addresses the dispossession of First Nations peoples through projecting animations based in Indigenous oral traditions and languages on Old City Hall. This project, along with others in the exhibition, is located on Bay Street between Albert Street and King Street, over to Queen Street & University Avenue.

If you were interested in learning about the conceptual work behind these pieces, check out the many artist talks taking place that night. Nuit Talks 2017  has a list of timings and locations. 

When: September 30 – October 1, 6:58 PM – 7:15 AM

Where: Here is the map for different stations

Cost: Free!

2. Nightmare on Dundas Street Film Screenings at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO)

Alfred Hitchcock, Psycho (film still), 1960. Source.

In honour of the AGO’s newest exhibition, Guillermo del Toro: At Home With Monsters, running from September 30th 2017 – January 7th, 2018, the gallery will provide screenings of some of the most terrifying movies in film history (which happen to be some of Guillermo del Toro’s favourites!). Several iconic films are featured, such as Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho and Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, all of which are playing in the AGO's Jackman Hall.

At Home with Monsters is an exhibition of del Toro’s personal collection of artefacts and ephemera, all of which inspired his movies. The exhibition gives us a sneak peek into the strange creative processes behind del Toro’s films.

When: Every Friday from October 6th – December 8th, 2017. Showings take place 10:00 – 12:05 am

Where: The Art Gallery of Ontario, 317 Dundas St West

Cost: Tickets are $12 for the public, $10 for members and $8 for students. You can buy tickets online or at the front desk. 

3. Pumpkinferno at Upper Canada Village

Pumpkinferno! Source.

One of my favourite fall activities is carving jack-o-lanterns! If you’re looking for some next-level inspiration this year, visit the mesmerizing displays of Pumpkinferno at Upper Canada Village! Pumpkinferno started in 2012, with a group of artists showcasing their amazing carving skills. This year, over 7,000 pumpkins were used to create intricate designs themed on Canada 150. Some highlights include pumpkins carved in the artistic style of the Group of Seven and decorative skulls from the Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). To learn more about other displays, click here.

Upper Canada Village is a living history site dedicated to re-creating English-Canadian life in 1866. Featuring authentic buildings from the 1860s with costumed interpreters, the Village is especially picturesque at this time of year. The Thanksgiving long weekend is the perfect opportunity to see this special site!

When: Starting from September 29th - October 29th, Every Thursday – Sunday, and Thanksgiving Monday, October 9th

Where: Upper Canada Village
13740 County Road 2
Morrisburg. ON K0C 1X0

Upper Canada Village is located in the heart of Eastern Ontario on County Road 2 (formerly Highway 2), 11 km (7 miles) east of Morrisburg and 29 km (18 miles) west of Cornwall.
Cost: Friday to Sunday and Thanksgiving Monday:

Adult (13-64) - $15.95, Thursdays – $11.95

Senior (65+) - $13.95, Thursdays - $9.95

Youth (6-12) - $11.95, Thursdays - $7.95

Child (5 or under) - Free

4. Light Up Toronto for Diwali – Festival of Lights!

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Diwali is a South Asian holiday that celebrates the triumph of light over darkness. This year, the 5-day long festival begins on October 18th until Sunday, October 22nd.

To celebrate this special time of year, the Indo Canada Arts Council is organizing Light Up Toronto, a free festival at Dundas Square. The event features traditional activities, such as the lighting of earthen lamps and dance showcases, along with contemporary musical performances by various artists such as Mika Singh and Mahalakshmi Iyer, and a display of Indo Canadian art. And, of course, there will be lots of delicious Indian food served, such as dosas and samosas!

For more information, visit www.canadadiwali.ca

When: Saturday, October 7, 2017, 12:00 PM – 11:00 PM

Where: Yonge-Dundas Square

Cost: Free!

5. Oktoberfesting Activities in Kitchener-Waterloo!

Gemütlichkeit! Justin Trudeau taps the keg at Oktoberfest 2016.  Source.

This month, I have to give a shout-out to my hometown of Kitchener-Waterloo! Kitchener takes Oktoberfesting very seriously, as it hosts the biggest Bavarian festival in North America and the second biggest Oktoberfest in the world (next to Munich). It grew from a one weekend event in 1969 to a nine-day long Festival celebrated in multiple Festhallen, or celebration halls (I usually attend the Concordia Club), attracting 700,000 people each year.

Some highlights of the festival include the Opening Ceremonies, which feature the famous “tapping of the keg” (last year Justin Trudeau was the special guest who performed the tapping), and the Willkommen Platz, where Downtown Kitchener’s Carl Zehr Square and Kitchener City Hall is converted into a Bavarian Village. There will be a plethora of pretzels, bratwursts with sauerkraut, and pints of beer. There’s also the Thanksgiving Parade, which features the Oktoberfest mascot, Uncle Hans, brass band music and folkdance demonstrations. For more information, visit the K-W Oktoberfest website .

When: Opening Ceremonies: Friday, October 6th, 2017 at 11:15 am

Willkommen Platz  Dates & Times:
Friday, October 6 - 9:00am to 6:00pm
Saturday, October 7 - 9:00am to 6:00pm
Sunday, October 8 - 9:00am to 6:00pm
Monday, October 9 - 8:00am to 3:00pm
Tuesday, October 10 - 11:00am to 2:00pm
Wednesday, October 11 - 11:00am to 2:00pm
Thursday, October 12 - 11:00am to 2:00pm
Friday, October 13 - 10:00am to 5:00pm
Saturday, October 14 - 9:00am to 6:00pm

Where: Opening Ceremonies take Place at Carl Zehr Square. The Festhallen are located throughout Kitchener. Click here for an entire list of venues. 

Cost: The opening ceremonies, the Thanksgiving Parade and Willkommen Platz are free to attend. The tickets to attend the Festhallen vary.

6. Toronto Reference Library Record Swap

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The Toronto Reference Library is hosting a Record Swap this year! If you are looking to diversify your vinyl collection or are interested in picking up a new hobby, this is a great way to meet other collectors in the area. You can also view a sample of the library’s collection of 15,000 records along with CDs, concert posters, and band photos. 

When: Monday, October 16th, 6:30 – 8:30 pm

Where: The Toronto Reference Library, 5th Floor, Arts Department

Cost: Admission is free! It’s important to note that this is a swap, not a sale, so bring a record to trade if you want a new one.

7. Archival Toronto Fall 2017: Archive Fashion Pop-Up Shop

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One of my favourite things about autumn is fall fashion! Jazz up your wardrobe with unique styles from a pop up fashion gallery! Archival Toronto is presenting a special Archive Fashion Pop-Up Shop, celebrating designers who have shaped the fashion industry as well as young talent in the fashion world. Some of the designers featured are Yohji Yamamoto and Raf Simons.

For more details check out their Instagram at @ArchivalToronto

When: October 13 – 15, 12:00 – 8:00 pm

Where: 156 Augusta Avenue

Cost: For Consignment Opportunities and more details, visit their website at http://archivaltoronto.ca

8. Friday Night Live - Wicked at the ROM!

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Friday Night Live at the ROM is back and they’ve prepared a massive Halloween party for the last weekend in October! Dress in your ghoulish best as you enjoy drinks, dancing and live music with dinosaurs, mummies, and ancient artefacts. While there, make sure to check out the featured exhibitions, such as Anishinaabeg: Art & Power, The Family Camera, and The Evidence Room. This is also a great way to explore the hidden gems on the second, third, and fourth floors of the museum. 

Music will be performed by DJ ESP, DJ Craig Dominic and University of Toronto Faculty of Music. 

This is a 19+ event.

When: Friday, October 27, 2017, 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM

Where: The Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queens Park

Cost: $17 adults, $15.50 students/seniors, $5 members 

Early bird tickets can be bought online,

Autumn is my absolute favourite time of year. The temperate weather, golden skies and mesmerizing foliage is a reminder that there is beauty in change. Whether you prefer to spend your October indoors with a cozy drink or outside absorbing all the colours, I hope you enjoy every moment of this beautiful season!