More than 300 activities mark Museum Day

More than 300 activities mark the European Night of Museums and International Museum Day this weekend, including guided tours, workshops, games, immersive experiences and activities for families, all over the country.

International Museum Day is celebrated on Sunday, May 18, and this year the initiatives begin on Saturday, with the European Night of Museums, reported the public company Museus e Monumentos de Portugal (MMP).

Together, the two celebrations total more than 300 activities in Portugal, according to the report made on Friday, available on the MMP website.

For this year's celebrations, the International Council of Museums (ICOM), the event's global promoter, proposed the theme “The Future of Museums in Rapidly Changing Communities”, which invites us to think about the role of museums as catalysts for change, innovation and social inclusion.

In Braga, the celebrations begin in the morning, with musical moments at the Paço dos Duques de Bragança, in collaboration with the Guimarães Conservatory, while in the evening, the Nogueira da Silva Museum opens for guided tours of the collection and gardens.

In Porto, there are visits to the 19th century pharmacy at the Hospital de Santo António and the pharmacy at the Joaquim Urbano Hospital, guided tours of the Torre dos Clérigos and the Soares dos Reis Museum, which has the workshops “Aurélia de Souza: Constructing a Self-Portrait” and “Let's draw the sculptures of Soares dos Reis”.

At the Vila do Conde Museum, there is a wooden shipbuilding workshop, which allows you to try out tools and learn about the skills of ancient carpenters and caulkers.

In Coimbra, this Saturday evening, at the Machado de Castro National Museum, there will be music, dance, theatre and circus shows, studies on the world of food represented by the paintings of Josefa d'Óbidos and a journey with tasting through the history of flavoured wines and liqueurs, from Imperial Rome to 19th century Coimbra. On Sunday, there will be guided and themed tours, games, a multimedia workshop and other creative workshops.

In Leiria, there are workshops to reflect on the role of museums, and visits until the evening, at the José Malhoa Museum.

At the Alcobaça Museum, there are guided tours of spaces such as the Capela do Desterro, and opening of technical reserves, which are not normally open to visitors; a night visit, entitled “The Daily Life of the Monks”, will give an insight into the day-to-day life of the Cistercian monks.

On museum day, it will be possible to take a guided tour of the Fortress and the National Resistance and Freedom Museum, at sunset.

In Lisbon, drawing is done outdoors, there is a graphic diary workshop run by final year Fine Arts students from the University of Lisbon, in the Botanical Park of the National Costume Museum, a space that will also offer guided tours, story time for children and a Tai-Chi Chuan session.

The National Coach Museum has a 'Peddy Paper', which challenges children and adults to solve a mystery; the National Ethnology Museum has workshops on ceramics, spinning, tapestry, hand weaving on a waist loom and natural dyeing; the National Museum of Contemporary Art has artist Adriana Molder for a visit to the exhibition “Aldebaran Fallen to Earth”; and at the Ajuda National Palace, historical recreations and re-enactments allow you to be king and queen for a night.

The Water Museum will also be celebrating the 180th anniversary of the birth of Eça de Queirós, with a visit featuring historical animation that will reveal the relationship between the writer and the Lisbon Water Company. In this museum, you will also be able to discover the exhibits through a game of Bingo.

At the Frei Manuel do Cenáculo National Museum, in Évora, a workshop visit allows you to experience the work of a restorer and conservator, while in the evening a guided tour allows you to see some of the main pieces in the collection.

Outside the scope of the MMP, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, in Lisbon, will have free entry this weekend and offers visits, workshops, poetry, talks, performances and lots of music.

The recently opened MACAM — Armando Martins Museum of Contemporary Art opens its garden to guided tours and will have free entry on Sunday, with themed visits to the collection and the palace's former chapel.

At the National Museum of Natural History and Science, at the University of Lisbon, there will be themed visits at night, among signs of peoples, dinosaur populations, plants and minerals.

At the Museu do Oriente, guided tours will be held of the recently opened exhibition “Foto Arte Ganesh”, the result of the recovery of the previously unseen collection of photographer Krishna Navelkar, Ganesh, acquired by the Fundação Oriente.

The Portuguese Archaeologists Association, at the Carmo Archaeological Museum, is promoting the visit “The turns that Carmo has taken — from Church to Museum”.

On Museum Day, the Aljube Museum offers free access to the exhibitions “Before independence, it was a struggle for liberation”, about the 50 years of independence, “Architects of Freedom”, about the right to housing, which “was and is a struggle for women”, and the long-term exhibition “about the history of the building, the characterization of the dictatorial regime (1926-1974), its means of repression and oppression, as well as the resistance of the opposition and the struggle, until the overthrow of the dictatorship on April 25, 1974”.

Casa Fernando Pessoa, also in Lisbon, hosts Sopa de Pedra, a female vocal group that sings traditional Portuguese music.

In Porto, the Serralves Museum offers artistic workshops in drawing, painting, sculpture, architecture and cinema; guided tours and a “furious reading” session, a party with people who write, people who draw and people who are angry about reading.

In Cascais, activities begin today and continue until the 25th, with free entry to all facilities in the municipality during this weekend.

In the municipality of Sintra, the National Palace of Queluz leads to a visit to the Botanical Garden, built between 1769 and 1780, and to the “Exponent of Baroque”, to see “The Restoration of the Royal Chapel”.

The Neo-Realism Museum, in Vila Franca de Xira, has guided tours, this afternoon and evening, of the exhibitions “A Guitar with People Inside — Carlos Paredes and Neorealism”, “The courage of the drop of water is what dares to fall in the desert”, “She's Lost Control”, by Alexandre Lyra Leite, and “Mário Soares and Neorealism”.

According to ICOM, more than 40,000 museums around the world participate in International Museum Day.