International Museum Day 2013

Every year since 1977, International Museum Day is held worldwide sometime around May 18. This year, more than 30,000 museums are getting ready to celebrate the event in around 100 countries
on the five continents!

The theme: Museums (Memory + Creativity) = Social Change
The theme of the International Museum Day 2013, Museums (Memory + Creativity) = Social Change, aims at showing that the richness of our historical heritage, preserved and displayed by museums,
together with the inventiveness and vitality that have characterised the museum sector’s action in recent years, are where the strength of museum institutions lies today.

This truly optimistic theme in the form of an equation dynamically gathers several concepts that are essential to define what a museum is today, highlighting the universal nature of those institutions
and their positive influence on society.

Activities around the world
Museums take advantage of the International Museum Day to meet their public and organise original activities.

Partners
Since 2011, ICOM patronizes the European Night of Museums, which is held every year on the Saturday closest to the International Museum Day. In 2013, both events will coincide since the European Night of Museums will take place at the same time as International Museum Day, on Saturday, May 18.

On the occasion of the International Museum Day 2013, ICOM is partnering with the UNESCO Memory of the World Programme, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2012.

Finally, the European Museum Forum (EMF) will grant the European Museum of the Year Award on May 18, 2013, in the Gallo-Romeins Museum of Tongeren (Belgium), within the frame of a partnership with ICOM.

Visit the International Museum Day official website: http://imd.icom.museum.