The International Museum Day is marked on May 18, Sunday, and this year the events begin today with the European Night of Museums, as announced by the public company Museus e Monumentos de Portugal (MMP).
In total, more than 300 activities will take place across Portugal, according to a report available on the MMP’s website last Friday.
This year’s celebrations are guided by the theme proposed by the International Council of Museums (ICOM), ‘The Future of Museums in Rapidly Changing Communities,’ which encourages reflection on the role of museums as catalysts for change, innovation, and social inclusion.
In Braga, the celebrations start this morning with musical performances at the Paço dos Duques de Bragança, in collaboration with the Conservatory of Guimarães. In the evening, the Museum Nogueira da Silva will open for guided tours of its collection and gardens.
In Porto, visitors can explore the 19th-century pharmacy of the Hospital de Santo António and the workshop pharmacy of the Hospital Joaquim Urbano. There will be guided tours at Torre dos Clérigos and the Soares dos Reis Museum, which will host workshops such as ‘Aurélia de Souza: Constructing a Self-Portrait’ and ‘Let’s Draw the Sculptures of Soares dos Reis.’
The Museu de Vila do Conde hosts a wooden shipbuilding workshop, offering the chance to use tools and learn the skills of ancient carpenters and caulkers.
In Coimbra, tonight at the National Museum Machado de Castro, there will be musical, dance, theater, and circus performances, studies on the food universe represented by Josefa d’Óbidos’ paintings, and a tasting journey through the history of wines and flavored liqueurs, from Imperial Rome to 19th-century Coimbra. On Sunday, themed guided tours, games, multimedia workshops, and other creative sessions will be held.
In Leiria, workshops will reflect on the role of museums, with visits extending into the night at the José Malhoa Museum.
In the Museum of Alcobaça, guided tours will be offered to the Chapel of Desterro and the normally inaccessible technical reserves, along with an evening tour titled “The Daily Life of the Monks” which provides insight into the day-to-day life of the Cistercian monks.
On Museum Day, the Fortress and the National Museum of Resistance and Freedom will offer guided sunset tours.
In Lisbon, outdoor drawing will take place at the Botanical Park of the National Costume Museum, along with a sketchbook workshop led by fine arts graduates from the University of Lisbon. The space will also host guided tours, storytelling sessions for children, and a Tai-Chi Chuan session.
The National Coach Museum hosts a ‘Peddy Paper’ event, challenging children and adults to solve a mystery. The National Ethnology Museum offers workshops on ceramics, spinning, tapestry, manual weaving on waist looms, and natural dyeing. The National Museum of Contemporary Art features artist Adriana Molder leading a tour of the ‘Aldebaran Fallen on Earth’ exhibition. Historical reenactments at the Ajuda National Palace allow participants to experience being a king or queen for a night.
The Water Museum is also celebrating the 180th anniversary of Eça de Queirós’ birth with an animated historical visit illuminating the relationship between the writer and the Lisbon Water Company, along with a Bingo game to discover the exhibits.
In Évora, the National Museum Frei Manuel do Cenáculo offers a restoration and conservation workshop, and an evening guided tour of key pieces of the collection will be available.
Outside the scope of the MMP, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon will offer free entry this weekend, featuring visits, workshops, poetry, conversations, performances, and music.
The recently opened MACAM — Museum of Contemporary Art Armando Martins opens its garden for guided tours today and will offer free entry on Sunday with themed tours of the collection and the palace’s former chapel.
The National Museum of Natural History and Science at the University of Lisbon will offer themed night tours on themes of peoples, dinosaur populations, plants, and minerals.
The Museum of the Orient will conduct guided tours of the newly-opened ‘Foto Arte Ganesh’ exhibition, which is the result of the recovery of the previously unpublished collection of photographer Krishna Navelkar, Ganesh, acquired by the Orient Foundation.
The Portuguese Archaeologists Association at the Carmo Archaeological Museum promotes the visit ‘The Turns Carmo Took — From Church to Museum.’
The Aljube Museum, on Museum Day, offers free access to the exhibitions ‘Before Independence Was a Liberation Struggle,’ marking the 50th anniversary of independence movements, ‘Architects of Freedom,’ on housing rights as a women’s struggle, and the permanent exhibition on the history of the building, characterizing the dictatorial regime (1926-1974), its means of repression and oppression, and the resistance of opposition movements leading to the fall of the dictatorship on April 25, 1974.
The Fernando Pessoa House in Lisbon hosts Sopa de Pedra, a female vocal group singing traditional Portuguese music.
In Porto, the Serralves Museum features artistic workshops in drawing, painting, sculpture, architecture, and cinema; guided tours and a “furious reading” session, a gathering for those who write, draw, and protest against reading.
In Cascais, events begin today and continue until the 25th, with free entry at all venues in the municipality over the weekend.
In the Sintra municipality, the Queluz National Palace offers tours of the Botanical Garden, built between 1769 and 1780, and of the ‘Baroque Exponent,’ showcasing ‘The Restoration of the Royal Chapel.’
The Neo-Realism Museum in Vila Franca de Xira offers guided tours today, afternoon and evening, of the exhibitions “A Guitar with People Inside — Carlos Paredes and Neorealism,” “The Courage of a Drop of Water Is Daring 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 worldwide participate in International Museum Day.
The activities in Portugal can be checked on the website https://dim.museusemonumentospt.pt/.
