ArmInfo. Today, on May 18, the International Museum Day is celebrated in Armenia and all over the world. This year, permanent and temporary exhibitions will be available for local residents and tourists on May 18 and May 21 in 125 museums in Armenia and Artsakh.
In particular, as Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sports Alfred Kocharyan noted during a press conference, the museums of Armenia and Artsakh prepared 122 temporary and permanent expositions, 30 educational programs, 40 concerts and 124 cultural events on the occasion of the International Museum Day.
It was noted that on May 18, everyone will be able to visit museums free of charge during working hours, and on May 21, within the framework of the "Night of Museums" all-European initiative, from 11:00 to 00:00.
Summing up the results of last year, Kocharyan noted that for the whole of 2021, about 1 million people, 210 thousand students visited the museums of Armenia, 10 thousand exhibits were replenished with museum funds, more than 2 thousand scientific and educational programs were prepared.
At the same time, he stressed that the problems in this area are numerous. As priorities, he called the need to introduce a unified electronic system for the online sale of tickets to museums, the implementation of major repairs, personnel issues, etc.
In this regard, answering the question of an ArmInfo correspondent, Head of the Department of Cultural Heritage and Folk Crafts of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of the Republic of Armenia Astghik Marabyan noted that now an interesting field for professional cooperation is being created in the country in connection with the relocation of citizens of Ukraine and Russia to Armenia. In particular, she stressed that among the visitors there are a large number of industry specialists who are already gradually starting to collaborate with local museums.
The decision to establish the International Museum Day was made at the XI General Conference of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), held in 1977.
Night of Museums - an event dedicated to the International Museum Day, during which you can view museum expositions at night. On this night, many museums are open to visitors after sunset and almost until morning. The first "Night of Museums" was held in Berlin in 1997. Armenia joined the initiative about 20 years ago.