The 19th edition of the Night of Museums, one of the highly anticipated cultural events of the year, will take place next month with a varied program of exhibitions, artistic experiments, screenings, presentations, performances, workshops, street and indoor animations, concerts, and interactive tours.

This year's event, scheduled for May 13, is also a special one, as it is held in cooperation with the neighbouring Republic of Moldova. Thus, for the first time, museums from Moldova also joined the project, being promoted and represented alongside those from Romania on the official platform noapteamuzeelor.org.

Museums and cultural institutions from across Romania will keep their doors open after dark on May 13, awaiting visitors with hundreds of events. The venues include astronomical observatories, churches, theaters, athenaeums, mausoleums, city halls, castles, palaces and fortresses, libraries, schools, art galleries, auction houses, and many others.

The special guest of this edition is the War Childhood Museum, the famous museum in Sarajevo dedicated to the memory of children who lived through the war. For the exhibition in Bucharest, which will be inaugurated at the National Museum of the Romanian Peasant on May 12, the curators have included stories and objects of children from Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan, Bosnia, Yemen, and Iraq, as well as Ukrainian refugee children in Romania.

"We already have 200 events listed in the program, many of which are firsts, covering 28 counties in Romania and Bucharest, as well as two districts in the Republic of Moldova and Chisinau. At the moment, there are 49 attractions on Bucharest's program map - 28 museums and 21 cultural entities and creative studios. From the country, 130 museums and memorial houses, as well as 21 other organizations from 65 localities, have officially signed up so far. All will be found on the common Republic of Moldova-Romania platform noapteamuzeelor.org, which will be updated soon," said Dragoș Neamu, coordinator of the Department of International Relations and Cultural Projects at the National Network of Museums in Romania.

Last year, roughly 260 museums and cultural spaces from over 90 localities across Romania kept their doors open, offering visitors the chance to get their dose of art & culture after dark. In Bucharest, the Night of Museums registered an absolute record of 64 cultural venues.

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: the organizers)