Family Night at the Museum is an event brought to you by the Alabama Museum of Natural History and The University of Alabama’s Graduate School. This campus and community-wide event will bring graduate departments together to showcase their content area through an interactive activity. The event will also feature a chance to win door prizes, a multilingual story time for kids, and the first 200 people will receive a bag full of goodies!

This year’s theme is Around the World! Families will have the opportunity to learn sign language, read Arabic stories, learn Mandarin, study fossils, and examine Alaskan wildlife. Attendees will be given a passport when they arrive. They can collect stamps by interacting with each of the graduate departments which will be labeled by a specific country. Those who complete the passport and turn in the door prize slip will be entered into a drawing to win prizes. At the end of the night, names will be randomly drawn to receive a door prize from our generous donors.

Several graduate organizations and departments will be involved in Family Night at the Museum, such as Secondary Math Education, Biological Sciences, Modern Language, NERD lab, and Geological Sciences.

Dates / Times

Family Night at the Museum will be held from 5:00 pm – 7:30 pm on March 4, 2023. 

Location

Night at the Museum will be located at the Alabama Museum of Natural History (Smith Hall, The University of Alabama) and Lloyd Hall (The University of Alabama).

Directions

From Birmingham: Take Interstate 20/59 S to Tuscaloosa exit 73, McFarland Blvd. Head West on McFarland Blvd toward the University of Alabama. Exit right onto University Blvd. Follow University Blvd to Hackberry Lane. Make a right onto Hackberry Lane and turn into the second parking lot on your left behind Smith Hall (yellow brick building).

From Montgomery: Take Hwy 82 W to Tuscaloosa. Exit right onto University Blvd. Follow University Blvd to Hackberry Lane. Make a right onto Hackberry Lane and turn into the second parking lot on your left behind Smith Hall (yellow brick building).

Parking

The map below shows the closest free and paid parking areas (VW Beetles) on the UA campus to Smith Hall (ALMNH logo) that can be used by museum visitors. There are five dedicated visitor parking spaces in the lot behind Smith Hall that can be accessed from Hackberry Drive. Upon arrival, once you pay for admission, you will receive a parking pass receipt that will entitle you to free parking in our museum visitor parking spaces. In addition, there is a parking deck located at Campus Drive and Hackberry Lane. The cost for visitor parking in the deck is $1 for the first hour and $2 for each additional hour.  To reach the parking deck, take Hackberry Lane to Campus Drive East, and the parking deck is on the right.