Update: Over 260 objectives across Romania open for Night of Museums 2024
Update: A number of museums and other locations that were initially on the list for Night of Museums 2024 have since announced that they will not be participating. The Bucharest Municipal Museum, for example, announced its solidarity with the demands of employees in the museum sector regarding the increase of salaries and will not participate in this year's edition. "We know that great efforts are being made at this time to resolve this demand from all involved parties - unions, professional organizations, state institutions - and we all hope for the rapid adoption of measures aimed at respecting salary rights and fair and decent working conditions for all employees in the museum sector,” the institution said, according to News.ro.
Employees at the Grigore Antipa National Museum of Natural History, the National Museum of Art of Romania, and the National Museum of Romanian History are also in solidarity with the demands. The National Museum of Romanian History announced that "for objective reasons" it will not organize the Museums' Night.
Organizers of the Night of Museums have acknowledged these announcements and said the final list of participating institutions will be ready by Friday, May 17. More details can be found on the event’s social media pages and official website.
Initial story: Over 260 objectives in 32 counties and in Bucharest can be visited during this year’s Night of Museums, which will take place on Saturday, May 18.
This year's edition is an anniversary one, as it marks 20 years since the Night of Museums was first held in Romania. Locations in cities like Brașov, Sibiu, Ploiești, Oradea, Craiova, Constanța, Bacău, and Alba Iulia are participating in the event.
Some of the places that can be visited outside of the capital are:
- Arad Museum Complex. Art Museum
- George Apostu Cultural Center, Bacău
- Bran Castle
- Peles Castle
- Museum of Communist Memories, Brașov
- Buzău County Museum
- "B.P. Hasdeu" Memorial Museum, Câmpina
- Museum of Comparative Anatomy USAMV Cluj-Napoca
- National Military Museum "King Ferdinand I". Constanța Branch
- Curtea de Argeș Municipal Museum
- Carpathian Hunting Museum “Posada”
The Night of Museums offers people in Bucharest the opportunity to visit 50 objectives. Among the objectives that can be visited are:
- ARCUB. “The Universe of Salvador Dalí” Exhibition
- the Romanian Athenaeum
- CFR Museum
- Children's Museum Bucharest
- Museum of Recent Art Bucharest
- Football Museum
- MINA Museum
- National Museum of Romanian Literature Bucharest
- National Museum of the Romanian Peasant
- International Glass Salon
- Bragadiru Palace
The City Hall of Bucharest also joined the “Night of Museums 2024” event for the fourth consecutive year, with a complex program that includes guided tours of the building, exhibitions, live music, and film screenings taking place both inside the palace and in the inner courtyard of the current headquarters at 47 Regina Elisabeta Boulevard. Bucharest residents and tourists are invited to the "Open City Hall" event from 6:00 PM to 12:00 AM.
Further details about the Night of Museums in Romania can be found here.
This year, the local edition of the event will be marked by protests. The National Federation of Culture and Media Unions “CulturMedia” – CNS Cartel Alfa announced that it will organize a protest on Saturday, May 18, titled “Night in Romania’s Museums,” picketing the Ministry of Culture and the headquarters of the government, according to HotNews.
The protesters say they seek to mark, among other things, 20 years of continuous degradation of the working environment in institutions responsible for managing the national cultural heritage, chronic underfunding of institutions responsible for managing the national cultural heritage, and inadequate cultural and salary policies.
Dragoș Neamu, the coordinator of international relations and cultural projects of the National Network of Museums in Romania (RNMR), stated that through this protest, employees are demanding a 20% salary increase.
"You will notice that many museums in the country do not appear in the 2024 Night of Museums program. Their representatives can be found and supported in Victorei Square [...]. This is a protest that I personally consider legitimate and support, because the goal is a 20% salary increase in the museum sector, for any professional position, to balance the major inequities and discriminations that exist within the cultural sector, between, for example, museums and theaters," Neamu wrote in a Facebook post.
The National Museum of Romanian History also announced that, for objective reasons, it will not organize the European Night of Museums event this year. It will, however, have regular visiting hours on the same day, from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM. Access to the museum will be based on the purchase of a visitor ticket.
In 2023, the 19th edition of the Night of Museums was organized together with cultural institutions from the Republic of Moldova and was present in over 360 museums and spaces in 90 localities in Romania, and nine in Moldova.
(Photo source: Noaptea Muzeelor on Facebook)
