WIREDGOV

Cultural institutions are being encouraged to complete their registrations for Museums at Night 2011 by January, in order to take full advantage of the programme's media coverage.

The weekend-long project, which last year saw over 280 museums and galleries across the UK open their doors after hours, will take place from Friday 13 to Sunday 15 May 2011. Over the weekend, the public can expect a mix of unique events including gallery gigs, twilight sreenings, midnight murder mysteries and all-night sleepovers.

Musuems at Night aims to bring new visitors to museums and galleries. Last year 85,000 visitors attended the various events, nearly half of whom had never been to the visited venue before. Media coverage was also wide: the programme featured in over 200 articles across 158 publications.

Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, Ed Vaizey, said: 'This is a tremendous example of museums thinking creatively about how they use their buildings and collections to engage with the visitors in new and sometimes unexpected ways. I thoroughly applaud Museums at Night and I am sure that this will be a hugely successful programme of events.'

The Arts Council recently became a funder for the project, along with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport; Historic Houses Association and Arts Marketing Association, adding to the support of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) and VisitEngland.

Arts Council Chief Executive Alan Davey said: 'Museums at Night is a wonderful way for arts organisations to reach new audiences and for new audiences to discover the wonders of the visual arts.  We want to encourage as many arts venues as possible to sign up and get involved in this exciting project'. 

For more information and to register your institution, visit the Museums at Night website