Visitors to Trenčín's Miloš Alexander Bazovský Gallery could release their artistic creativity. (source: TASR)
UNESCO, THE United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, held patronage over the Night of European Museums this year for the second time, the TASR newswire wrote. The European event took place on May 15 with thousands of museums participating, including 73 museums, nine galleries and five other cultural institutions in Slovakia. The celebration is part of the International Day of Museums founded in 1977.
Numerous events were organised throughout Slovakia. These included evening tours, historical costumes, lectures with insights about museums and galleries, demonstration workshops, reduced-price admissions, season openings and new exhibitions. Thousands in Bratislava visited participating museums and galleries – and also the SOGA auction house – especially in the late afternoon and evening, until midnight.
Bratislava Castle, which opened part of its courtyard and treasury after reconstruction, offered the ARS LITURGICA exhibition and had about 2,600 visitors. The Slovak National Museum’s natural history building had welcomed 4,200 visitors before it closed its doors and the Slovak National Gallery had lured about 2,300 visitors. Several smaller galleries and museums participated for the first time. For a single fee of €1.50 Bratislava residents and visitors could tour 30 museums. But the exceptionally bad weather during the day may have dampened some accompanying events, particularly those held outdoors.
In Nitra, in addition to the Agricultural Museum and Nitra Museum, the city’s synagogue opened its doors. In Trenčín, for a single euro, people could visit the town’s castle, museum, gallery and its big attraction – the Executioner’s House. In Trnava, all museum events as well as visits to the Ján Koniarek Gallery were free. In Banská Bystrica, the Central Slovak Gallery and the Central Slovak Museum unveiled interesting accompanying events with the museum arranging all of its exhibits in line with the motto for May – the Month of Love. The Slovak Museum of Speleology and Environmental Protection in Liptovský Mikuláš exhibited a model of a baby mammoth for the first time.
The Prešov Region prepared a whole range of events for the weekend. In Hanušovce nad Topľou, the celebrations began on May 14 and continued the next day with concerts, tours in historical costumes and ghostly presentations.
A slightly different tone enveloped the Andy Warhol Museum in Medzilaborce with free admission, a Warhol T-shirt, and a movie screening. Stará Ľubovňa’s open-air museum staged a night drama performance and Kežmarok hosted an evening show at its castle. The Podtatranské Museum in Poprad focused on theatre and also offered an exhibition of manuscripts and a lecture about tombs. The Šariš Gallery in Prešov hosted its core events on Sunday.
In Košice, a new gallery was opened – A22 on Alžbetina Street – which aims to become a vivid centre of modern artistic forms. The Humenné open-air museum opened its main season and the museum in Solivar showed its visitors how salt was extracted from local resources in past years.
