What is Museums at Night?

Museums at Night, which will explode into life from Friday 30 – Saturday 31 October 2015, and again from Wednesday 11 – Saturday 14 May 2016, is a twice-yearly UK-wide festival which seeks to encourage visitors into museums, galleries and heritage sites by throwing their doors open after hours and putting on special evening events.

FEBRUARY 2015: This blog is now archived and will no longer be updated: for the latest festival news and events, please visit www.museumsatnight.org.uk.

Museums at Night Ambassador Lauren Laverne says:

“I am honoured and delighted to be Ambassador for Museums at Night.

We all know British culture is rich and diverse. But how exciting to experience this in a new way – at night-time, when lights go down and our imaginations are in charge!

Museums at Night weekend is a fantastic opportunity for museums and galleries to get together to put on events that allow us to celebrate our heritage in new and exciting ways – perhaps discovering a cultural gem on our doorstep that we didn’t even know existed.”

The campaign is core funded by Arts Council England, with extra funding from  Grants for the Arts to support the Connect10 competition.

Co-ordinated by non-profit cultural publishing organisation Culture24, Museums at Night is an opportunity for the cultural and heritage sector to come together around a single, simple campaign that is attractive to venues, audiences and the media.

Museums at Night ties in with the European campaign, La Nuit Des Musées, and takes place on the weekend nearest to 18 May, International Museums Day.

The festival has grown rapidly since Culture24 took it over in 2009, largely because of our many partnerships with the likes of Future Shorts, the Faber Archive, Sky Arts, Love Art London, Time Out, the National Trust and many more.  

For the latest information on the run-up campaign and the festival weekend, read this blog! You can get a feed of these blog posts delivered immediately to you the moment they’re published by clicking here, and copying and pasting the URL into your RSS reader.

If you’re a member of the public, to learn more about what’ll be happening and plan which events you’d like to go to, simply visit www.museumsatnight.org.uk – or sign up here for our monthly public newsletter, tipping you off about exciting upcoming events and cultural competitions.

If you work in the arts and heritage sector and are interested in taking part in Museums at Night, sign up here for our monthly sector e-newsletter, bringing you updates about festival partnerships and promotional opportunities you may like to take advantage of. Here’s how to register your events so we can include them in our national PR campaign!

If you have any questions, please email rosie@culture24.org.uk or call 01273 623336.

Battleship Boogie on HMS Belfast

Museums at Night at the Horniman Museum