Museum Night: recommended visits

BarcelonaThis weekend, Catalan museums are celebrating International Museum Day with more than 300 activities. In addition to free museum admission, visitors can enjoy guided and dramatized tours, family workshops, escape games, shows, and concerts. This year, the event is being held under the theme chosen by ICOM, "The Future of Museums in Ever-Changing Communities," and invites us to reimagine the role of museums as essential connectors, innovators, and representatives of cultural identity. In an era marked by constant transformation, museums are at the forefront of change, navigating a dynamic landscape shaped by changing global events and evolving social needs. As every year, on the occasion of International Museum Day, the Department of Culture publishes the indicators for Catalan museums, in this case for 2024, whose visitor numbers are on the rise. The 240 registered museums and collections analyzed received 20.8 million visitors, a 5.3% increase compared to the 19.7 million in 2023.

This year's highlights

In Barcelona, some museums that didn't participate last year are returning to Museum Night, including the Water Museum, the Palau Mercader, the Museum of the History of Immigration of Catalonia, and the Mapfre Foundation. And newcomers include Casa Batlló, the Espai Moja, Catalonia: Living Heritage, and the Únicas Foundation. Sant Saver Hospital, the Barcelona Museum of Natural Sciences and the Greenhouse, and the Museum of Mathematics of Catalonia (MMACA).

In addition, the Cerdanyola Art Museum has launched a new museography, the Empordà Museum has reopened its doors after a thorough renovation, and the Design Museum inaugurated the ambitious exhibition Matter matters. On the other hand, the visit to the MAC Empúries will end at the recently remodeled museum. The list of new additions and new venues continues with the Fish Space at the Palamós Fishing Museum, the Rita Benaprès Reserve at the Maricel Museum in Sitges, and the Tierra Museum. Barcelona Room.

Enter the bowels of museums

Museum Night is often a unique opportunity to discover parts of the museum not open to the public. The Terrassa Textile Museum and Documentation Center team will tour the restoration workshop. MACBA will open the doors to the Convent dels Àngels architectural complex and the Study and Documentation Center tower and conduct a guided tour. Macba from the sky.

In Terrassa, the classic walk through the vaults of the roof of the National Museum of Technology and Science of Catalonia will return, and the Vinseum will open the Cal Berger restoration laboratory. And the Girona Art Museum offers a guided tour focused on exploring hidden corners and discovering the most subtle details of both the museum's historic building and the works of art it houses.

Another of these more surprising initiatives, Journey to the Museum Constellation, offers a guided nighttime itinerary through eight museums and cultural institutions in the city of Tarragona that open their doors during Museum Night. This year's theme is "Revealing the Hidden," and it will allow you to discover the most unknown spaces and activities of these facilities.

Activities for the little ones

Family audiences are one of the main attractions of Museum Night: the MNAC has organized games and self-guided tours for families, while the Archaeology Museum, also on Montjuïc mountain, is holding the activity. Explorers of prehistory, where the little ones can experience the work of an archaeologist. And the Palau de Caldes d'Estrac Foundation offers a family puppet show on Sunday, May 18. Minimal world with shadow techniques, rod puppets, and object animation.

In Tarragona, the National Archaeological Museum of Tarragona proposes the activity The sea within a mosaic, where they will discover what species are in the famous Mosaic of the Fish and they will create mosaics themselves.

Do yoga, learn to sail, dance

During Museum Night, some facilities offer activities that go beyond the more traditional ones. The Nautical Museum of El Masnou is offering an immersive workshop this Saturday. The art of sailing, which combines an introductory talk with antique navigation instruments and a 3D viewing of a nautical voyage. The Immigration Museum of Catalonia, in Sant Adrià de Besòs, has prepared a theatrical presentation of the film.The 47, by Marcel Barrena, and the screening of the film. Yoga will be available in the galleries at the Vic Museum of Medieval Art. And the Manresa Museum – Museum of Baroque of Catalonia offers an unusual dialogue between Baroque art and electronic music.

Visit monumental and unusual sites

Among the monuments and heritage sites celebrating Museum Night is the Seu Vella in Lleida, which will be open until midnight. Luminous, where magical beings from other worlds play with music, and in Barcelona the monastery of Santa María de Pedralbes, one of the best examples of Catalan Gothic, will hold an open day.