The Museum of Illusions in St. Louis has swapped its usual mind-bending exhibits for something a little more ghoulish this fall. At 3730 Foundry Way, more than a dozen exhibits and areas throughout the museum have gotten Halloween touches as part of a new limited-time experience called Weird Wonders, with five major attractions receiving especially elaborate makeovers.
Weird Wonders is described as playful and family-friendly, according to St. Louis Magazine.
How familiar illusions become Halloween scenes
Among the five flagship transformations, the Infinity Portal now creates the illusion of being abducted by an alien spacecraft. The Beuchet Chair, which normally uses forced perspective to make one person appear much smaller than another, has been transformed into a spooky throne with bone-inspired details.
Mirrors transform two other exhibits into larger scenes: the Infinity Room’s mirrored walls now extend a blacklight bat cave, with stalactites, stalagmites and spiderwebs, while the Cloning Table multiplies the image of a giant spider and hanging cocoons. Other Halloween additions include themed kaleidoscopes, floating pumpkins, eerie faces and a floor illusion that appears to open into a vortex filled with bats.
A Scavenger Hunt Built for Little Detectives
Illusion Quest adds a puzzle-solving activity to the visit. In the Halloween-themed scavenger hunt, Esme, the museum’s young illusion expert, asks visitors to help solve a mystery hidden throughout the exhibits. Participants use an illusion decoder to find clues and examine displays, encountering how perspective, light and visual perception can trick the brain along the way.
Kids get to keep their decoder and receive an invisible-ink pen at the end of the hunt.
Admission and Dates
Weird Wonders is included with regular museum admission at no additional charge, and it runs through Nov. 1.
Visitors can also find Halloween photo opportunities throughout the museum from Oct. 2 through Oct. 31, according to Museum of Illusions St. Louis. Those who purchase a Halloween Package during that same window will receive a complimentary 3D puzzle to take home.
More Halloween stops and a historic site
The museum is at City Foundry STL, where work on the property continued “nearly 24-hour-a-day” until 2007, according to City Foundry STL—a reminder of the site’s industrial past. Another local option is City Museum’s Fright at the Museum, listed as an all-ages Halloween event running September 30–November 1, according to City Museum.
Not Officially Sensory-Friendly, But Accommodations Exist
The museum does feature visual effects, lighting changes and interactive environments that may be stimulating for visitors with sensory sensitivities. Staff can provide earplugs and work with visitors who need accommodations, although the Halloween experience itself is not specifically designated as sensory-friendly, St. Louis Magazine reported.
St. Louis is one of just five Museum of Illusions locations in the United States to receive the expanded Halloween treatment this year, per the outlet. The museum plans to introduce additional themed experiences for the winter holidays, spring and summer, continuing the rotation it started with Weird Wonders.
