By Suzanne Sprague, KERA 90.1 reporter
Dallas, TX – Suzanne Sprague, Reporter: If you're having trouble sleeping this week, you might find good company at the Dallas Museum of Art. Dozens of night owls prowled the Museum overnight for a rare chance to enjoy the galleries when most of Dallas is dark.
Museum Visitor #1: The nighttime kind of adds a little mystery to it.
Museum Visitor #2: It's less traffic, cooler, more peaceful, complements the architecture, and I just like everything at midnight. Midnight movies. Midnight mass. Midnight tour of the museum.
Bonnie Pittman, Deputy Director of the Dallas Museum of Art: Eyes open. Shoulder back. Clenched in. Suck in that gut. Hold in. Look at you. Get in the act (laughs).
Sprague: No, it's not museum aerobics. This is the insomniac's tour of the DMA.
Pittman: We are the insomniacs!
Sprague: Deputy Director Bonnie Pittman is encouraging visitors to almost become one with a certain African statue.
Pittman: So here we are, the headdress opened up, the breath coming out...
Sprague: The insomniac's tour was Pittman's idea. She usually doesn't go to bed until 3 a.m. But the original plan to stay open for 100 consecutive hours came from security and building operations director Joe Peek as the staff brainstormed how to celebrate the DMA's centennial.
Joe Peek, Director of Security and Building Operations for the Dallas Museum of Art: It just kind of popped into my mind. I just thought what a cool idea to be open for 100 consecutive hours. -- Did everyone think you were crazy? --Yes (laughs).
Sprague: The Museum's public relations manager, Ellen Key, jokes she was among the skeptics at first, but now she's sure the free admission and 24-hour a day access will attract virgin visitors to the DMA.
Ellen Key, DMA PR Manager: We're really hoping that people who have always meant to come down but have never found the time or didn't want to pay the admission fee, well, have no more excuses.
Sprague: Of course, it's also just an excuse to have a party. And, it helps that the Museum's anniversary happens to coincide with what would have been Elvis Presley's 68th birthday bash.
[Presley's "In the Ghetto" begins to play]
Sprague: Elvis impersonators walked the halls Wednesday night while the DMA's caf served the King's favorite eats.
Dan Landsberg, Special Events Chef: Right here we've got our fried chicken going and we've also got one of our hamburgers going.
Sprague: Dan Landsberg is the chef in charge of the evening's fried banana and peanut butter sandwiches, as well as the double-decker cheeseburgers. Elvis, of course, wasn't a devotee of Weight Watchers.
Landsberg: These are the fried Snickers bars, wrapped in puff pastry kind of in the shape of a dog bone since he wasn't nothing but a hound dog, so...
Sprague: The DMA's Elvis events have concluded, but Joe Peek, who's sleeping four hours a night on a cot in his office, says his staff will still welcome visitors for early morning yoga classes and late night films and tours.
Peek: I like the buzz we're feeling in the Museum and I have a case of Mountain Dew downstairs, so I'm ready to go (laughs).
Sprague: The buzz continues at the Dallas Museum of Art around the clock, free of charge until 5 p.m Sunday. For KERA 90.1, I'm Suzanne Sprague.
To contact Suzanne Sprague, please send emails to ssprague@kera.org.