Museums at Night 2014 printable posters

Thanks to everyone for admiring the beautiful front cover design on our Museums at Night brochures this year!

We’re happy to share the design with you as a printable poster – you can download the picture in landscape or portrait format and print it out to display.

Landscape Museums at Night 2014 poster (JPG, 4MB)

Portrait Museums at Night 2014 poster (JPG, 4MB)

I shared these links in yesterday’s email newsletter and have since had feedback from several people, particularly from local authority museums, who’ve had difficulty in downloading the files.

If you’re blocked from downloading the posters via these links, please drop me a line (rosie@culture24.org.uk) and I’ll send you a Dropbox link to the files.

Oh yes, and if you’re not receiving our regular email newsletters, full of marketing and promotional opportunities  you may like to take advantage of, you can sign up for them here: http://eepurl.com/ssLn

Order your Museums at Night 2014 brochures by Monday 31 March

Thanks to everyone who’s registered Museums at Night events in the database: BBC History Magazine are now compiling our major piece of print publicity, the official Guide to Museums at Night.

This A5-sized colourful 16-page brochure goes out to all BBC History magazine readers, and selected Tourist Information Centres across the UK. It contains short interviews and features about some of the exciting festival events, along with list of participating venues arranged by region.

The goal of the brochure is to send people who pick it up to the Museums at Night public-facing website to find events they’d like to visit in their area.

The front over of BBC History Magazine’s Guide to Museums at Night 2014, designed by Stuart Kolakovic

All venues running a Museums at Night event will receive a small box of 100 brochures – unless you tell us otherwise! These come to you totally free, and you have 10 days to let us know how many you’d like.

Please fill in this simple form to let us know how many boxes you’d like: you can order small boxes containing 100 brochures, or large boxes containing 500 brochures – or if you don’t want any brochures at all, please use the form to tell us this. We can’t send out fewer than 100 brochures at a time.

You can help raise awareness about the Museums at Night festival by placing the brochures in foyers and cafes, local libraries, bookshops, theatres, cafes, bars, and supermarkets: you know better than we do the places that people are likely to pick up brochures in your town. 

If you’re not running a Museums at Night event this year but would still like to take a box of brochures and distribute them in your area to help raise awareness of the festival, please do order a box! To our delight, this happens every year, and it’s really encouraging for Nick and I to see the sector come together to encourage more visits to arts and heritage venues.

Please order your brochures here by 11am on Monday 31 March 2014.

Get into BBC History Magazine’s Guide to Museums at Night: register your event by Friday 7 March

UPDATE: Thanks to everyone who got in touch because you were away for half term: we’ve extended the deadline to register your events for our brochure until Friday 7 March.

The latest publicity opportunity: your event will appear in BBC History Magazine’s official printed Guide to Museums at Night if you register it by Friday 7 March.

This brochure is our main piece of printed publicity, and is distributed to all readers of BBC History Magazine, various Tourist Information Centres, all UK museums and galleries participating in the festival, and any other arts and heritage venues who volunteer to help with the distribution.

Take a sneak peek at our beautiful front cover for this year’s brochure, designed by artist Stuart Kolakovic:

Museums at Night 2014 brochure cover design by Stuart Kolakovic

Don’t miss out! If you’re already planning an after-hours event in your arts or heritage venue on Thursday 15, Friday 16, or Saturday 17 May 2014 you can simply register double-brand your event as part of the Museums at Night festival to take advantage of all the associated publicity.

Here’s how to register your Museums at Night 2014 event.

Order your free BBC History Magazine Guides to Museums at Night by Wednesday 3rd April!

BBC History Magazine’s Guide to Museums at Night is nearly ready, and it’s going to be very special: this year’s cover design is by top artist Fred Deakin!

The Guide is an A5 glossy brochure with 16 pages of themed editorial roundups and photos celebrating and promoting the festival, giving a flavour of the diverse and exciting events taking place. It’s not a dry series of listings, but is designed to encourage people who pick it up to head to the Museums at Night website to find out more about festival events taking place near them.

Families looking for after-hours inspiration (c) John Rylands Library, Manchester

All the 70,000 readers of BBC History Magazine will receive the Guide, but we’re also having 75,000 extras printed to distribute through Tourist Information Centres and to send out to your venues. For the last couple of years, this has been a key part of the Museums at Night festival marketing at a local level.

Last year, the venues who requested brochures had great success in raising awareness about the festival placing them in foyers and cafes, local libraries, bookshops, theatres, cafes, bars, and supermarkets: you know better than we do the places that people are likely to pick up brochures in your town.

Order your free brochures here now!

If your venue is running a Museums at Night event and you don’t fill in the form, we’ll automatically send you a box of 100 brochures. However, if you can take more than this please use the form to let us know by Wednesday 3^rd April, as you won’t be able to ask for more later. You can request as many large boxes (500 brochures) or small boxes (100 brochures) as you want and we will send them to you completely free of charge.

Alternatively, if for some reason you can’t put any brochures out, please fill in the form to let us know so we don’t send you unnecessary copies.

Last year it was incredibly heartening to see many venues who weren’t able to run events supporting the Museums at Night festival, and other local venues by asking for brochures to put out. It would be wonderful to have your support during this campaign.

Could you do this? Please click here to request your Guides!

Call for images, #MatN2013 Twitter hashtag and 11 February publicity deadline

It’s great to see so many venues registering their Museums at Night events in our database – remember, we can’t start promoting what you’re doing until we know about it!

The first deadline to register your Museums at Night events in Culture24’s DDE database  is Monday 11 February 2013 – if you can add your event listing by this date, it will be considered for inclusion in this year’s BBC History Magazine Guide to Museums at Night, our printed brochure.

It will also be included in our big PR push out to long lead glossy magazines – so now is a great time to confirm your plans so as to take maximum advantage of our marketing work!

If you know what you’ll be doing, please log in to your Culture24 account here and add the new event listing, making sure to open the Programmes option and tick the box marked Museums at Night 2013.

Do describe your event making it sound as compelling as possible – what makes it unique, why is it unmissable, and what will visitors be able to experience if they come along?

If you haven’t yet confirmed your plans, but know that you’ll be doing something, you can log in and add as much detail as you can to your event listing as normal, but change the event status from Confirmed to Planning. This means that the Culture24 team will be able to see it and mention it in publicity, but it won’t be visible to the public until you log back in and switch the status to Confirmed.

Making the most of our marketing opportunities – send us your photos!

Our PR campaign is built around the stories and images from your events: the stronger these are, the more media interest and coverage the festival will get. So, please send us your photographs so that we can create the most eye-catching publicity material possible!

We need images that are high-resolution – at least 300dpi – and ideally which are taken at sunset, dusk or night-time. The pictures could be of the outside or inside of your venue, but should ideally involve interested people having a great time interacting with objects, collections or exhibitions at your venue.

An example of a good photo: visitors smiling as they discover Geevor Tin Mine in a new light (c) Bernie Pettersen

The sort of pictures which the media are most likely to be use involve people – cute kids are always good if your event is designed to appeal to a families; or if you’re going for more of a grown-up, aspirational audience, shots of glamorous people discovering your space with a glass of wine in hand may help set the tone.

Remember to ask parents’ permission before photographing children.

The images we receive which capture the spirit of the weekend could be featured in:

• local, regional and national press coverage
• the Culture24 website and Facebook page
• this blog
• BBC History Magazine’s printed Guide to Museums at Night
• in presentations given by Culture24 staff
• and in many of the other ways we promote Museums at Night events

Please email your images, and any photographers’ credits or copyright info, to me: rosie@culture24.org.uk.

Twitter hashtag #MatN2013

And finally, if you’re tweeting about your events, the official hashtag for this year’s festival is #MatN2013 – do include it, and we’ll retweet you!

Find Museums at Night events – and order printed Guides!

Museums at Night events are being registered in our database more quickly than ever – last week we passed the 200 event mark and today there are 270!

More are being added all the time, and if you know what your venue is planning to do, please log in to your record and add the listing now. Questions? Problems? Call me on 01273 623336 or email rosie@culture24.org.uk.

We’ve also listened to feedback from people who found it difficult to search for Museums at Night events. Now, when you go to the main Museums at Night public-facing landing page, you can either search on a map, or use our special event search widget – simply select your UK region, and whether you’re looking for events on Friday 18, Saturday 19 or Sunday 20 May.

The Museums at Night homepage at http://www.museumsatnight.org.uk, now complete with an event search widget (top right) and a Google map of events

Finally, don’t forget that this is your one chance to order copies of BBC History Magazine’s printed Guide to Museums at Night. This brochure is our only UK-wide printed publicity, promoting the festival weekend through exciting advertorial writing and attractive images.

All venues who register a Museums at Night event will automatically receive a box of 100 brochures – but last year, several museums and galleries quickly distributed their 100 brochures and were disappointed to learn that they’d missed their chance to order more. Don’t miss out!

Think about what you might do with the Guides, which are A5 sized – as well as putting them out for visitors to your venue, to encourage them to return during Museums at Night weekend, could you place them in other local attractions, cafes, supermarkets or heritage sites?

To order more copies, simply fill in this form by 11am on Wednesday 4th April:

https://culture24.wufoo.com/forms/2012-museums-at-night-bbc-history-magazine-guide/

Order your free BBC History Magazine Guides to Museums at Night by Wednesday 4 April!

The wonderful BBC History Magazine Guide to Museums at Night will be on its way to the printers very soon! It’s a thing of beauty: an A5 size, full-colour glossy brochure with 16 pages of photos and writing.

You can order your Guides here up until 11am on Wednesday 4th April.

Picking up the BBC History Magazine Guide gives readers a taste of the exciting places they could discover over Museums at Night weekend... Photo from Pendennis Castle (c) English Heritage

The Guide picks out event highlights by theme, giving a flavour of the diversity of events that will be on offer across the UK over Museums at Night weekend. The idea of this persuasive text is that members of the public who pick it up will be compelled to head to the Museums at Night website to find out what’s on near them.

Every reader of BBC History Magazine will receive the Guide, but we’re having 50,000 extras printed to send out to you all. For the last couple of years, this has been a key part of the Museums at Night festival marketing at a local level.

The venues who took boxes of brochures to distribute reported great success from putting them out in their own foyers and cafes, local libraries, bookshops, theatres, cafes, bars and supermarkets.

You know better than we do where people in your town are likely to pick up flyers, leaflets and brochures – and here’s ready-made high-quality printed publicity, at no cost to you, for you to make the most of in your community!

Order your free brochures here now!

If your venue is running a Museums at Night event and you don’t fill in the form, we’ll automatically send you a box of 100 brochures. However, if you can take more than this please use the form to let us know by Wednesday 4th April, as you won’t be able to ask for more later.

Alternatively, if for some reason you can’t put any brochures out, please fill in the form to let us know so we don’t send you unnecessary copies.

Last year it was really heartening to see many venues who weren’t able to run events asking for brochures to put out so that they could support other local venues by promoting the campaign.

Could you do this? Please click here to request your Guides!

Get your events into BBC History Magazine publicity: register them by Thursday 16th February

Major publicity opportunity!

For the third year running, Culture24 is working with BBC History Magazine to create a glossy colourful printed Guide to Museums at Night.

This A5-sized brochure will give participating arts and heritage venues a unique chance to have their event mentioned in print in a publication distributed widely across the UK.

The Guide is not a hard-to-read attempt at providing complete event listings, which would immediately become out of date. Instead, it’s written in engaging advertorial style, and rounds up events by theme to give a flavour of the diversity of experiences on offer during Museums at Night weekend (May 18 – 20).

As space is limited, we can’t guarantee that all events will be mentioned, but for your venue and event to be considered for inclusion you must register your event in the Culture24 database by 5pm on Thursday 16th February.

The front cover of the BBC History Magazine Guide to Museums at Night from 2011

The purpose of the Guide is to encourage everyone who picks it up to learn what the festival is about, and to look up the complete Museums at Night event listings through the Culture24 website to find out what’s on near them.

Don’t miss out!

Museums at Night Project Manager Nick Stockman says: “This is your venue’s chance to be in the one official Museums at Night festival brochure. It’s produced in collaboration with BBC History Magazine and gets wrapped in their May issue hitting the streets in April. What’s more, all venues participating in the festival receive copies so it’s really worth being part of. Look out for the brochure in mid-April – I promise you the front cover will be stunning this year!”

Still curious? Read the full BBC History Magazine Guide to Museums at Night 2011 to get more of an idea about how we write the text and use the photos you send us to convey the excitement of the weekend.

Distribution

The Guide will be distributed to the 70,000 readers of BBC History Magazine, Tourist Information Centres around the country and also to participating venues.

Last year, many museums and galleries used the Guides to raise awareness of the campaign in their local communities by placing them in local libraries and shopping centres. We were also delighted when several venues that couldn’t stage a Museums at Night event still offered to put out Guides to raise awareness of the festival weekend among their own visitors.

Deadline: Register your Museums at Night events in the Culture24 database by 5pm on Thursday 16th February for the chance to be included in the Guide.

The link to log in and add your event listing to the DDE database is here:

http://update.culture24.org.uk/dashboard 

If you don’t have a username, fill in this simple form:

https://culture24.wufoo.com/forms/new-dde-username/

And if your venue’s not listed on Culture24, ask us to add you here:

https://culture24.wufoo.com/forms/join-our-network/

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

Museums at Night Guides – and a lovely flyer from Norwich!

We hope that every venue staging a Museums at Night event has now received copies of BBC History Magazine’s Guide to Museums at Night 2011 – they’re beautiful creations as always, and Nick and I were delighted when our box arrived at Culture24 last week!

This year's BBC History Magazine Guide to Museums at Night is a thing of beauty

We recommend that you distribute the Guides not only to your visitors, but also through any local spots where people are used to picking up brochures and flyers, such as libraries and cafes – you may find this brings in new visitors who haven’t thought of exploring your venue before.

Culture24 does a lot to publicise the Museums at Night campaign on a national scale, encouraging people to search our listings to find events near them to go to. However, there’s no substitute for local promotion, so we strongly encourage you to let people in your town know that you’re running a Museums at Night event through local media, posters, flyers, your website and your own social media channels. You’ll find all kinds of helpful tips on marketing and promotion in our free-to-download PR Toolkit – do take a look, and if you have any questions please give me a call.

If you’re putting together publicity materials such as brochures or mailouts which will include your Museums at Night events, please feel free to download and use our campaign logos! They’re available both in compact jpeg format, ideal for using online, and high-resolution PSD format, suitable for use in print, and you can access them here.

Here’s a fine example of a flyer making use of Museums at Night official photos and logos, sent to us by Sally Goldsmith from the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts – their Dungeons to Battlements joint event with Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery is just one part of a busy weekend of Museums at Night events across Norwich.

The front page of Norwich's flyer, which uses Museums at Night photos and logos

If you’ve come up with gorgeous posters or fabulous flyers promoting your Museums at Night event, please share them with us by emailing rosie@culture24.org.uk – we’re happy to showcase them!

Order your free Guides to Museums at Night by 11am on Friday 8th April!

The wonderful BBC History Magazine Guide to Museums at Night is on its way to the printers now! It’s a thing of beauty: an A5 size, full-colour glossy brochure with 16 pages of photos and writing. However, we can only take your orders up until 11am on Friday 8th April. Order your free copies here!

The Guide picks out event highlights by theme, giving a flavour of the diversity of events that will be on offer across the UK over Museums at Night weekend. The idea of this persuasive text is that members of the public who pick it up will be compelled to head to the Museums at Night website to find out what’s on near them.

Last year this was a key part of the campaign marketing at a local level, and the venues who took boxes of brochures to distribute reported great success from putting them out in their own foyers and cafes, local libraries, bookshops, theatres, cafes, bars and supermarkets. You know better than we do where people in your town are likely to pick up flyers, leaflets and brochures – and here’s ready-made high-quality printed publicity, at no cost to you, for you to make the most of!

Order your free brochures here now!

If  your venue is running a Museums at Night event and you don’t fill in the form, we’ll automatically send you a box of 100 brochures. However, can you take more than this? Alternatively, if for some reason you can’t put any brochures out, please fill in the form to let us know so we don’t send you unnecessary copies.

Every reader of BBC History Magazine will get a Guide, but we’re having 100,000 extras printed to send out to you all. Last year it was really heartening to see many venues who weren’t able to run events asking for brochures to put out so that they could support other local venues by promoting the campaign.

Could you do this? Please click here to request your Guides!

The front cover of BBC History Magazine's Guide to Museums at Night 2011

Behind-the-scenes blog bonus: find out what it was like for one of our writers to model for the front cover of the Guide by reading Laura Burgess’ blog post about the experience here!