International Museum Day is held under slogan "Museums in Hypercommunications Era: New Approaches, New Audience"

UFA, 18 May 2018. /Bashinform News Agency, Galiya Nabieva/translated by Tatiana Aksyutina/.  May 18 is an International Museum Day. The decision to establish a holiday was taken at the 11th general conference of the International Council of Museums in Moscow in May 1977.

In 2018, the International Council of Museums chose the theme "Museums in Hypercommunications Era: New Approaches, New Audience". Thanks to technologies, museums can go beyond their main audience and attract new visitors by popularizing their collections in various ways: digitizing cultural heritage, including multimedia in the exposition, and creating a hashtag that will cause additional public interest in the museum and its collections in social networks.

At present, over 200 virtual museums have been created in Russia. Since January 1, 2015, Russian museums made a free entrance for children, regardless of their citizenship. In 2017, Russian museums visited a record number of people - 125 million.

Traditionally, as part of the celebration of the Museum Day in many countries around the world, the "Night of Museums" campaign is held. The main motto of the "Night of Museums" is openness for the audience. All interested persons can visit exhibitions, seminars, lectures and master classes free of charge at various venues.

In Russia, the Krasnoyarsk Museum Center was the first to open its doors for night visitors in 2002. Since 2015, the event involved federal, departmental and private sites and museums throughout Russia. In 2018, the campaign will take place on the night of May 19-20, the theme of this year is Masterpieces from the Reserves. Residents of Bashkiria in the Night of Museums will be shown for the first time the "Irendyk Bear".