Night of Museums

This event will take place in Europe on Saturday, May 19.

May 19 is Night of Museums

Last year 42 European countries and nearly 2,000 museums participated. Particularly France is active with an estimated 934 participating museums in 2006 receiving 1.2 million visitors. This night is also enjoying a growing popularity in the other participating countries, especially attracting many young visitors and families.

An enlightening night
All participating museums will open their doors free of charge from sunset to one o'clock in the morning. The organizers have encouraged museums to adopt unusual approaches to share their collections and heritage with visitors. Special programmes will therefore include guided exhibition tours, theatre, films, dance, music, readings, tasting sessions and much more. To get from one place to another many cities provide free transportation this night. In Warsaw, Poland they've gone one step further. Special old busses called "cucumbers" will be commuting back and forth from one museum to the next, as well as an otherwise closed tramline that will open for the night. In Warsaw transportation on Night of Museums is an attraction in itself.

From Norway to Spain, and from Ireland to Russia, almost 2,000 European museums will share their treasures with young and old making for an enlightening and entertaining evening.

Long-term Goal of European museums
As part of the event, the "Night of Museums" will also illustrate the goal of European museums to become part of a common project designed to discover different identities and cultures. The following major European cities have already agreed to participate actively in this event: Baku, Brussels, Zagreb, Barcelona, Madrid, Lisbon, Belgrade, Tallinn, Budapest, Venice, Palermo, Riga, Vilnius, Cracow, Warsaw and Bucharest.

The "Night of Museums " is placed under the patronage of the Council of Europe and is organised in parallel to the International Museum Day May 18 celebrated by the International Council of Museums (ICOM).

Related information
Listing of Night of Museum in Europe using an excellent interactive map
Listing of Night of Museum in Europe with a 27 page pdf document