MUSEUM NIGHT
The first Museum Night was organised in Krakow in 2004, following the example of the Berlin “Lange Nacht der Museen”. The idea behind it is to make museums available to the public on a chosen night in May – it’s already been a tradition to organise the Museum Night in the middle of May on a Friday/Saturday night. Every year the programme evolves around a central idea, such as “The Past of the Future” (2006), “90th Anniversary of Poland’s Regaining Independence” (2008) or “Krakow Museums of the 21st Century” (2009).
Year by year the number of visitors increases, as does the repertoire offered to them.
For the first Museum Night there were 12 institutions involved, while in 2009 there were already 27 of them, including municipal, regional, ministerial, university and private museums and galleries. The organisers always prepare special attractions such as showpiece lessons conducted in museums, workshops for children and adults, knights’ tournaments, multimedia presentations and concerts held in period interiors.
Thus far the entrance ticket to all the museums has taken the form of a specially minted commemorative coin for a symbolic fee of PLN 1, which entitled its holder to unlimited access to all museums participating in the project. In 2009 access to all museums was free (entrance cards were available at the entrance of each museum), and visitors could buy the coin, as a commemorative souvenir, for the symbolic fee of PLN 1.
The 1st Museum Night in 2004 aroused huge interest among the public. About 60,000 people visited Krakow’s museums at that time. This number is growing year on year: in the years 2006–2008 there were already over 150,000 visitors. The estimated number of visitors in 2009 is 136,369. (MD)
