SE River Campus "Escape the Museum" continues into Sunday, Nov. 17

Southeast River Campus' Crisp Museum has jumped on the "escape room" bandwagon and debuts its inaugural "Escape the Museum" event Saturday and Sunday.

Participants who enter the escape room must solve a required number of riddles, obstacles or series of problems within a 1-hour period. And those activities include items already present at the museum, including antique playing cards, animal pelts and World War II memorabilia.

Without revealing too much, museum manager James Phillips said Southeast is hosting a variation on the typical theme of an escape room "with our own twist to it, to be a little more museum oriented."

But it still holds challenges and puzzles that have to be solved, he said, and the museum's collections become the backdrop and clues.

The room was installed Friday with the help of Southeast staff and volunteers, he said, and encompasses both galleries.

"We're trying it in a small dose to see what works and what doesn't," he said, adding one of the goals is to attract more visitors to the museum through the event.

Phillips said its part of a "growing idea" of making the museum more approachable and more interactive. "And if it works well, we'll do it again," he said.

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