Museums at Night To Take Place Twice a Year

After a bumper year in 2014, Museums at Night – the UK’s annual night-time festival of arts, culture and heritage – will now take place twice a year– in May and October.

The May festival will now run over four days, from Wednesday May 13 until Saturday May 16, while a second festival, lasting two days, will take place on Friday and Saturday, October 30 and 31.

Now in its seventh year, Museums at Night offers the chance to experience culture and heritage in a totally unexpected way. The festival sees hundreds of museums, galleries and historic spaces all over the UK opening their doors after hours to put on an array of special events. The festival has experienced phenomenal growth during the past few years, attracting 180,000 visits to 700 events in more than 500 venues across the country in 2014.

http://www.museumsatnight.org.uk

Museums at Night Kicks Off This Week!

After months and months of planning, Museums at NIght,  the annual nighttime festival of arts, heritage and culture, takes place this week – from Thursday May 15 – Saturday May 17, 2014.

Over 500 museums, galleries and historic spaces all over the UK will be opening up after dark to put on a dazzling array of special events: From unique literary talks in castles to star gazing in historic houses; sleepovers in palaces to city-wide culture crawls, the Museums at Night festival offers the chance to experience culture and heritage in a totally unexpected way.

Highlights taking place include Turner prize winning artist Grayson Perry playing teddy bear hide and seek at Yorkshire Museum, celebrated photographer Spencer Tunick travelling down from New Jersey to Folkestone to photograph 125 individual nudes on Folkestone beach and photographer Rankin turning his lens from celebrity to the allotment holders of St Ann’s Allotments, the oldest and largest allotments in the UK.

Many of the UK’s cities, including Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle and Gateshead and Bristol, will be holding city wide cultural festivities, with arts venues, galleries, shops, pubs and bars all taking part in one big cultural mash-up.

At Bullet PR we are lucky enough to be covering both Grayson Perry and Rankin’s events – excited is an understatement!

BBC’s Arts Editor Will Gompertz will present a special programme from Museums at Night at the National Museum of Scotland on Saturday 17 May, 7pm on BBC Two, with additional coverage of the festival on bbc.co.uk/arts from May 15.

There are nearly 700 events confirmed now. Have a browse around the website to find something you fancy.

www.museumsatnight.org.uk  @MuseumsatNight #MatN2014

 

Grayson Perry -Courtesy the Artist and Victoria Miro

Public Service Broadcasting announced for Museums at Night

London based musical duo, Public Service Broadcasting, are to play three exclusive gigs in a secret location at the RAF Museum in Hendon as part of Museums at Night 2014, on May 15, 16 and 17, 2014.

In what will undoubtedly be one of the highlights of the Museums at Night festival, the RAF Museum in North London will provide a fitting and atmospheric backdrop for the band as they perform their debut release – The War Room EP – in its entirety. Granted unique access to propaganda films from WWII-era Britain by the BFI, the band perform in front of breathtaking visuals to a soundtrack of atmospheric synths, pounding drums, Krautrock guitars and poignant piano – beaming the past back at us through vintage TV sets and state of the art modern video projections.

In addition to Public Service Broadcasting’s set you can expect a night of 40s, 50s and 60s themed entertainment: the chance to take part in a mission to knit a life sized plane in a recreation 1940s living room, whilst being serenaded by a live cabaret singer; a 50s and 60s Silent Disco, and traditional games of giant snakes and ladders – all taking place within the shadow of an RAF Lancaster Bomber. Tickets go on sale 10^th February, priced £28 plus booking fee, and will be available at  https://royalairforcemuseum.digitickets.co.uk/tickets

Grayson Perry, Rankin and Spencer Tunick announced for Museums at Night 2014 Connect10 Competition

The line up for Connect10 has been announced and the list of artists for 2014 is stronger than ever.

Grayson Perry, Rankin and Spencer Tunick are just three of the ten contemporary artists chosen to take part in Connect10, the national competition that gives the UK’s museums and galleries the chance to win a leading artist to put on an event at their venue over Museums at Night weekend (Thursday May 15 – Saturday May 17, 2014).

Cultural venues now have a month to bid for their chosen artist with a fantastic event idea. The best ideas will be shortlisted and it’s then up to the public to decide who goes where.

The ten artists chosen for Connect10 2014 are:

• Grayson Perry
• Rankin
• Spencer Tunick
• Fred Deakin
• Jessica Voorsanger
• Amy Sharrocks
• Janette Parris
• Alex Hartley
• Matt Pyke
• Mr Smith’s Letterpress Workshop

We can’t wait to see what ideas cultural venues come up with!

First events announced for Museums at Night 2013

Museums at Night, the annual late night festival of art, culture and heritage, will take place this year over three nights in May, Thursday May 16^th – Saturday May 18^th.

Tying in with the European event La Nuit des Musées, hundreds of museums, art galleries and heritage spaces all over the country will be opening up late and putting on a fantastic mix of events: expect bands playing in art galleries, costumed balls, contemporary artist happenings, unique literary events, sleepovers in museums, family-friendly science and astronomy events and beautiful historic houses lit by candlelight.

Some of the UK’s most well respected contemporary artists, including Turner Prize-winning artist Martin Creed, Jake and Dinos Chapman, YBAs Gavin Turk and Mat Collishaw and sculptor and installation artist Richard Wentworth have already confirmed they will be putting on unique Museums at Night events.

Jake and Dinos Chapman said, “We are overjoyed to be working with Museums at Night because they are kindly offering to host one of our sinister aberrations that might not otherwise see the light of day. Off the top of our heads we’re thinking something involving industrial storage heaters in a waxworks museum or Night Vision Paintball in a cathedral. But if any participating institutions have a better idea we’re up for a discussion!”

Some of the events confirmed already for 2013 include:

• A Regency costumed ball at the National Trust’s Coughton Court in Alcester, Warwickshire.

• A 1920s themed evening of glamour and intrigue with a murder mystery, vintage cocktails and canapés, in the Art Deco surroundings of Coleton Fishacre in Kingswear, Devon.

• Experience life below stairs as a Victorian servant before sitting down to a Downton Abbey style Victorian supper at Arlington Court, Barnstaple, Devon.

• Learn about life in a Cornish tin mine with an atmospheric torch-lit tour between Geevor Tin Mine Museum and Levant Mine and Beam Engine on the beautiful Cornish coast.

•  A night of Food and Flora at Charlecote Park in Warwickshire, which includes a sunset tour of the glorious gardens at this Tudor stately home, followed by dinner using produce from the Park and local area.

• A Bat Walk at dusk at Hatchlands Park in Surrey.

• A celebratory weekend commemorating the 70^th Anniversary of the Dambusters Raid in WWII at the Helicopter Museum, the world’s largest dedicated helicopter museum, in Somerset. Expect search lights and a living history encampment.

• Red Barn Murder at Moyse’s Hall Museum in Suffolk. On the anniversary one of the most famous Suffolk murder cases, find out all about the grizzy events at the Red Barn in this illustrated lecture – complete with book bound in the murderer’s skin and the pistols that fired the fatal shot.

Over 121,000 visitors attended Museums at Night 2012, with over 500 cultural events across the UK to choose from – from Late Night Christian Louboutin at the Design Museum to Scottish rock group Django Django in the Museum of Scotland, food artists Bompas and Parr floating the SS Great Britain on a sea of jelly and Polly Morgan performing taxidermy in front of a live audience in Liverpool.

Museums at Night is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England’

For up-to-the-minute listings, visit www.museumsatnight.org.uk

For Twitter Updates follow @culture24  #MatN2013