Museums at Night starts tonight!

I'm sure many people will be aware of this - but just in case.......

Museums at Night 2010 will run from Friday 14th May to Sunday 16th May. Night owls can look forward to a weekend of nocturnal adventures as museums unlock their doors for the annual after-hours celebration.

There are two main ideas behind this.

1. Museums are looking for new ways of opening their doors to the public and encouraging museum attendance. The 'nights' weekend is one of the ways which has proved to be very original and enjoyable in the past 
2. The event also offers a great opportunity for the museums in a particular location to work collabaoratively which is also 'a good thing' and helps museums get coverage by their local media.  This is all the more important given the imminent publis spending cuts and double dip recession.
3. It connects us a bit more to Europe where there has been a long tradition of all-night cultural events.  The first Long Night of Museums (German: Lange Nacht der Museen) took place in Berlin in 1997 while St Petersburg claims it invented it!

The Nuit Blanche article on Wikipedia provides many examples which now occur around the world.

A Nuit Blanche will typically have museums, private and public art galleries, and other cultural institutions open and free of charge, with the centre of the city itself being turned into a de facto art gallery, providing space for art installations, performances (music, film, dance, performance art), themed social gatherings, and other activities.

The European Museums at Night will this year occur on Saturday 15th May.

Museums at night in the UK

Here are some of the events in the UK.  These are some of the suggested Art must-sees during Museums at Night 2010. 

This is the venues listing and this is the events listing

• Late opening (246)
• Guided tour (80)
• Performance (66)
• Workshop or activity session (61)
• Living history or re-enactment (33)
• Storytelling session (26)
• Lecture (21)
• Seasonal event (19)

A number of the events seem to be designed for and to attract a somewhat younger audience - so be creful to check the information about who the event is suitable for.


Museums at Night 2010 is funded by the Museums Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) and organised by Culture24 which is a registered charity and not-for-profit online publisher, working across the arts, heritage, education, and tourism sectors.  For further information visit Culture24.  You can also follow museums at night on  http://twitter.com/Culture24 or by following #museumsatnight


Links:

• The Economist - Night-time at the museum
• The Guardian - Museums at night - a weekend of after-hours events