Scavenger Hunts at The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

It’s more like the Museum of Fun Arts…

…when you go on this eye-popping, jaw-dropping tour across the centuries at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. With your team, you’ll discover startling aspects of objects and art from ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, Japan, China, India, Paris, and all periods of American history. Your challenge: answer tricky questions about what you find. To triumph, you just need sharp eyes, comfy shoes, and great teamwork.

An unusual art museum scavenger hunt

Don’t know much about art? No worries! Instead, your team will be challenged to find out such things as…

• Why King Kong would take up smoking
• What ghoulish ingredient a lady keeps in a flowerpot
• Why a naked goddess isn’t actually naked
• And much more

You’ll search for answers to such questions as…

• Why does a guy deliberately get heart burn on his wedding night? Answer: In the painting ‘Wedding night of Tobias and Sarah,’ the groom burns a heart and a liver to ward off demons. It was a different time…
• What does a wiry artist turn a spiral into? Answer: Cow dung, near Alexander Calder’s “Cow.”
• Why would a boy’s mummy suggest that he put on gold lipstick? Answer: To ensure speech in the afterlife, as explained near a portrait of a mummy youth.

The museum is open until 10 p.m. on Wednesday through Friday, which allows for a great after-work team-building activity for corporate groups. But you don’t have to work at a company to join the fun: this game is great for birthday parties, social groups, college groups, you name it.

Add more team-building fun

Want your group to interact more? Try the Mixed Alliances Edition, in which each team must meet and collaborate with three other teams as the game unfolds. Each individual will interact with at least 11 other game participants. What will you do when your opponent must become your ally?

What people are saying about the MFA scavenger hunts

A 5-star review on Google: “Our group of 22 did the Scavenger Hunt at the MFA as a holiday gathering and everyone had a blast! It is very well organized, and has enough for each person on each team to contribute in some way and really lends to a great team building event sparking a great sense of competition as well as teamwork. Highly recommend!”

A 5-star review on Yelp: “Did the tour at the MFA with a business networking group. Broke into groups of 5-6. Answered questions like: Why does the boy mummy wear gold lipstick? Very clever clues, not too easy, not too hard. My team won and we received medals. Very fun unique event.”

“Let me just say WOW! That was such a great event. Everyone said such wonderful things about the experience. I thought the day went super smoothly with the help of Katie and Jada and I would love to work with Watson Adventures again.”

Delighted clients who have tackled this team-building extravaganza include Dunkin’ Brands, Procter & Gamble, Oracle, Converse, Liberty Mutual, Novartis, and LinkedIn, to name just a few.

Contact us to learn more about the team-building scavenger hunt at the Museum of Fine Arts—and find more fun in Boston!

Stop a killer? Get a clue!

There’s a killer on the loose at the Museum of Fine Arts, and it’s up to your team to stop him! How? By playing the scavenger hunt he created, which will ultimately reveal his identity, the murder weapon, and the location of the victim’s body. He sent the hunt to the police and dared them to try and solve it, but they’re stumped. Now they need your help.

You’ll be supplied with a list of potential suspects, weapons, and places. By following the clues and answering tricky questions, you’ll narrow down the list and provide the authorities with the evidence they need to catch and convict the killer.

No knowledge of the museum or art is necessary. The game is bit easier than the Murder at the MFA Scavenger Hunt, which makes it a popular team-building choice with mixed groups.

You can purchase tickets to a weekend Whodunit hunt for the public below, or contact us to learn more about booking a private Museum of Fine Arts scavenger hunt —and find more fun in Boston!

A curator has been murdered…

…and he left behind a trail of clues that reveal secrets embedded in works of art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. As your team finds answers to tricky questions about the art, you begin to piece together the details of the museum’s planned purchase of a newly discovered painting by Leonardo da Vinci. The dead man knew too much, and now it’s up to you to learn what drove one of four suspects to commit murder. Can you figure out whodunit?

What kinds of groups have cracked this case? All kinds, from corporate groups looking for a team-building activity to social groups searching for an unusual game to bring people together. And you don’t need to know anything about art to win: you just need quick wits and good teamwork.

What are players saying about the MFA murder mystery game?

A 5-star review on Yelp: “This was incredibly fun! My boyfriend and I did the Murder Mystery in the Museum of Fine Art. We followed directions to different rooms in the museum and used clues to find a specific pieces of art. The answer was usually obvious in the art or in the description. No prior art history knowledge needed! Each team was staggered so we weren’t all rushing to the same room at the same time….This scavenger hunt was easy and fun and made me read about the art much more than I would have normally….I had a great time and will look this company up next time I am in Boston.”

Contact us to learn more about this murder mystery scavenger hunt at the MFA—and find more fun in Boston!

An unblushing look at nudity in art…

…though we can’t guarantee that you won’t blush on this naughty tour of the MFA. On teams, you’ll scrutinize paintings and sculptures featuring randy Romans, a “stag” party drinking game, Gauguin’s island girls, sultry sylphs from Southeast Asia, Father Time’s hot time, and a god with Venus envy. Along the way, you’ll get a whirlwind tour of the best of the MFA, from ancient Egypt and Rome, through the amazing new American galleries, and right up to the latest contemporary art.

No knowledge of art—or nudity—is required.

Find the antidote before it’s too late!

That antidote is for you, because you’ve been poisoned. If your team can solve the puzzles created by the diabolical mastermind responsible, you’ll unlock the box with the cure. You might be able to escape a room…but can you figure out these tricky clues and escape the Museum of Fine Arts with your life?

That’s the premise of this fun team-building game that leads you through the halls of the MFA, searching for specific works of art that uncover the answers. You’ll have to answer fun and challenging questions about what you find, interact with our staff to tackle sneaky puzzles, and ultimately crack a code.

No knowledge of art or the museum is required: you just need to pay attention and work with your team. If your friends or colleagues like puzzles but don’t want to be stuck in a small room for an hour, this is the perfect activity for you. 

Follow clues, discover treasures!

On this whirlwind adventure, kids and adults team up for an entertaining tour of the museum that takes you across centuries, continents, and time—from ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome to Japan, China, India, Paris, and through the United States.

A terrific way for kids to have a blast and get a history lesson in the process, this scavenger hunt is a great choice for school field trips, camp outings, birthday parties, and more. And kids don’t need to know anything about art or the MFA to play: they’ll just need to pay attention to their surroundings, solve our fun and funny clues, and work together.

This game is suitable for ages 7 and up. At least one adult must accompany each team. The collaboration  and the humor required to play the game make this scavenger hunt a great school field trip activity.

Contact us to learn more about this museum scavenger hunt for kids—and find more fun in Boston!

Get your wands at the ready…

…for this magical journey through the Museum of Fine Arts, in search of art that echoes characters, places, and enchanted objects in the Harry Potter books and movies. Kids and adults team up to find giants that will remind you of Hagrid, centaurs and unicorns that would be at home in the Forbidden Forest, dragons that would strike fear in the hearts of Triwizard Tournament participants, and freaky figures as frightening as Death Eaters and Dementors.

Wizards and muggles alike can play

You don’t have to be a Potter buff to prevail: we have a cheat sheet for muggles, so they can enjoy the hunt and contribute just as much. The hunt is not an addition to or variation on Harry’s adventures; instead, references to the books and movies will provide a surprising bridge to many strange and wonderful works of art.

Inspired by a Sherlock Holmes story…

A rich businessman named Hilton Cubitt has been murdered in his home. His wife, Elsie, has also been shot and seriously wounded, but police suspect that she killed her husband and see her shooting as an attempted suicide.

The sleuths at Watson Adventures, however, doubt this theory. The scene of the crime included two unusual pieces of evidence: a sheet of strange, handwritten “dancing” stick figures and a crumpled-up scavenger hunt featuring works of art at the museum.

We need your help! Your assignment: do the scavenger hunt, decipher the meaning of the dancing figures, and figure out who murdered Hilton Cubitt. Elsie’s life hangs in the balance—and she’s depending on your group’s teamwork and detective skills to exonerate her.

A Halloween hunt in hallowed halls

Artists definitely have a dark side, as you’ll discover on this spine-tingling scavenger hunt through the MFA’s galleries. On teams, you’ll search for such ghastly sights as skulls and skeletons, martyrs and murderers, nightmarish monsters and freakish beasts, severed heads, torturous devices, and assorted ghouls. Play at your own risk.