In 2012, 416 venues ran 537 Museums at Night events. After 8 years, the annual pan-european event ‘les Nuits des Musees‘ has become a regular fixture on the event calendar.
Events are sometimes weird and wacky, beautiful, thought-provoking or even magical. ACE have linked some very high profile artist residencies, like connect 10 to the Culture24 co-ordinated programme. The very concept of opening later and attracting different audiences to do different – or even the ‘usual’ things – in our museums seems to have become embedded . Now Culture24 want to reflect on why some museums are not participating and what the barriers may be. Why not take part in their online surve? even if youve never been involved and don’t intend to be it’ll be interesting. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/C5YQHY8
With increasing pressure on museums’ capacity will museums decide they can only participate in a limited number of national initiatives? How do people choose what to include? Is it about fosussing on very locally relevant days, reacting to things on the hoof? Do you prefer to stick to the days you’ve always done? Are the biggies like Jubilee or World War I commemorations the limit of your capacity? Do nationally marketed brands like Heritage Open Days and Museums at Night give your audience development efforts helping hand?
A certain magically French artistic touch inspired Les Nuits Des Musees 8 years ago, but I must say, apart des femmes qui le present, this video http://nuitdesmusees.culture.fr/?l=GBR lacks any pzazz.. We definitely seem to think that quirky is best .. http://www.culture24.org.uk/places+to+go/museums+at+
