Why May 18 is a special date

NIGHT at Kinneil Museum on May 18 – details at www.kinneil.org.uk/night – is part of the Festival of Museums . . . and another initiative: Museums at Night. This is an annual UK-wide festival which seeks to encourage visitors into museums, galleries and heritage sites – by throwing their doors open after hours and putting on special evening events.

The campaign is core funded by Arts Council England, with extra funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund to support new regional clusters in North Lincolnshire and North Norfolk.

Co-ordinated by non-profit cultural publishing organisation Culture24, Museums at Night is “an opportunity for the cultural and heritage sector to come together around a single, simple campaign that is attractive to venues, audiences and the media”. Or, at least that’s what they say on their website.

Museums at Night ties in with the European campaign, La Nuit Des Musées, which takes place on Saturday 19th May 2012. In the UK, to allow venues greater flexibility, it will run over the weekend of Friday, May 18 to Sunday, May 20. The date is significant as it’s the weekend nearest to International Museums Day (May 18) and helps maintain the media profile of May as Museums Month.

So OUR event on May 18 is perfectly timed: part of a Scottish-wide Festival of Museums, a UK-wide Museums at Night, a European campaign La Nuit Des Musées, and on International Museums Day. Well, Kinneil is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site!

Check out all the information on the Kinneil event at www.kinneil.org.uk/night. The Kinneil event has been supported with a Festival of Museums grant from Museums Galleries Scotland.