Nit dels Museus — Museum Night

Good Practice

Sustainability

Nit dels Museus — Museum Night

From 7.00pm to 1.00am, 90 facilities and museum spaces in 8 municipalities of the Barcelona metropolitan area offer cultural activities and free admission.

Barcelona City Council

Spain

Local policy

POLICY OBJECTIVE

Raise awareness about museums’ importance as vectors for cultural exchanges and enrichment, advancement of mutual understanding, cooperation, and peace.
Connect museums with their local audience.
Highlight museums’ important role as institutions at the service of society.
Promote awareness of the city’s various museum facilities to disseminate heritage collections and increase public attendance.

CONTEXT

By joining International Museum Day, Barcelona sought to build bridges between the international museum community, the city’s museums, and local visitors.

Since 2008 Barcelona has celebrated the Night of Museums, which turned 15 last year. The initiative has gained prominence and recognition among city residents, with between 100,000 and 200,000 visitors filling museum halls for the yearly event.

POLICY DESCRIPTION

Features of Night of Museums 2023:

121 temporary and permanent exhibitions and 86 related activities, including guided tours, interactive and theatrical experiences, access to spaces not usually open to the public, various games, screenings of short films and media, creative workshops, etc.
90 museums and museum spaces took part in 8 municipalities of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area.
In a first, visitors of “La Virreina Centre de la Imatge” enjoyed free childcare for 0- to 12-year-olds. Leisure monitors tailored the service with children’s furniture and play materials.

KEY ASPECTS

Agreed and promoted within the local administration.
Universal involvement among the city’s museums, public and private.
Financial resources to effectively deploy an annual communication campaign to comprehensively disseminate initiative and message.

RESULTS

Saturday 13 May 2023, participating museums and museum spaces welcomed more than 100,000 visitors.

Among those with the highest number of visitors were the National Art Museum of Catalonia (8,093 visitors); Barcelona History Museum (MUHBA; 7,215 visitors across all venues); Barcelona Contemporary Culture Centre (CCCB; 5,104); Science Museum (CosmoCaixa; 4,972); FC Barcelona Museum (4,945); Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona (MACBA; 4,213); Moco Museum (4,000); Museum of Badalona (3,981); Memory Space “La Model” (3,076), and Egyptian Museum of Barcelona (2,880).

Youth attendance at this year’s event topped previous years.

Policy's Website

Jaume

Muñoz Jofre

Director for Cultural Heritage, Barcelona Institute of Culture

jmunozj@bcn.cat

Good Practice