Announcing the Museums at Night 2010 photo competition winners!

Thanks very much to everybody who took pictures of the fun they had at Museums at Night events, and shared them in our Flickr group. There are 265 images from all over the UK, and our judges (Gordon MacDonald, editor of Photoworks magazine; Culture24 editor Richard Moss and Culture24 director Jane Finnis) were delighted to see the range of events people had been to.

Lights at the Eden Project by Matthew Fox - the overall winner

It was particularly great to see so many interesting photos this year from participating venues – these are handy to use for promoting future events in your museum or gallery. If you’re sending out a press release inviting people to come and explore your collections after dark, providing pictures showing happy visitors doing just that can make the difference between getting a one-line nib and a quarter-page spread in your local newspaper.

If you’re planning on taking part in Museums at Night 2011, we’ll be asking you to list your event in the Culture24 DDE database, and then to send us a promotional photo, ideally of people having fun in your venue at night. Here at Culture24 we get a lot of media enquiries about the Museums at Night programme, and these photos are incredibly useful in bringing your event descriptions to life.

You can read our article about the photographers and see all the winning photos here.

Want a theremin concert in your venue for Museums at Night 2011?

Musician Eric Ross performs at the Guggenheim, Bilbao

Is your museum or gallery suitable for staging an eerie-sounding show? It could certainly add to the evening’s atmosphere for your Museums at Night event!

Don’t forget, the dates of the next Museums at Night weekend are Friday 13th – Sunday 15th May 2011 – do make a note of them, and start discussing your event plans with your team.

I’ve been contacted by musician Eric Ross, offering a theremin concert at a UK museum or gallery as part of Museums at Night 2011. (A theremin, if you’re wondering, is an electronic musical instrument controlled without contact from the player.)

He offers the “Eric and Mary Ross Ultimedia Concept, a performance with video and live music (including the Theremin) as part of your programming for Museums at Night in May 2011. This combination of electronic arts, video and music, especially with the Theremin, would be attractive for your audiences and could fit well with your program.  The Rosses would also be available for a lecture demo workshop.”

You can find more information and videos on the couple’s websites:

http://www.ericross.info/

http://www.maryross.info/

And if you’re interested, you can contact them on ericrossmusic@stny.rr.com.