Xcel Energy Gallery
When the lights go out, the museum no longer behaves as a place of order, preservation, and quiet observation. Instead, objects come to life, and carefully constructed displays begin to unravel. This is what happens in Milan Trenc’s 1993 children’s book Night at the Museum and its 2006 film adaptation, which inspired the theme of the Plains Art Museum’s 2026 Spring Gala Nightmare at the Museum. In the story, a night watchman at the Museum of Natural History in New York City experiences a series of chaotic encounters with animated objetcs, like a T-rex skeleton, a mischievous monkey, a miniature cowboy and Roman general, and a life-sized model of Theodore Roosevelt, that turn the museum into a nightmare, so to speak.
Nightmare at the Museum leans into unease, mystery, and horror with artwork from the Permanent Collection. This exhibition features an eclectic sample of artworks that stir fear and fascination, including prints of monstrous creatures, paintings of demons, images of x-rayed bodies, photographs of little girls in gas masks, unsettling dolls, and assemblages of hybrid figures. Nightmare at the Museum invites viewers to exercise their dark imaginations whilst delving into the shadows of the Museum’s collection.
