February 2, 2020 – The Museum Night event, whose 15th edition was held on Friday, January 31, at 250 locations in 110 cities, municipalities and towns across Croatia, attracted just over 218,000 visitors, and over 83,000 in Zagreb alone, according to initial preliminary data.
Splitski Dnevnik reports that this year’s Museum Night, organized by the Croatian Museum Society (HMD), was marked by the theme “The Great Anniversaries of Croatian Museums”, with the emphasis on the 200th anniversary of the Split Archaeological Museum and the 140th anniversary of the Zagreb Museum of Arts and Crafts.
In addition to museums, other heritage institutions, archives, libraries, cultural centers, religious communities, associations and educational institutions participated in the 15th Museum Night. The programs were implemented in more than 250 locations in 110 cities, municipalities and towns, and the number of visitors, processed based on 70 percent of the participants’ reports received, ended on Saturday, February 1, at 11 am and amounted to about 218,000 visitors.
Zagreb recorded the most visitors, where just over 83,000 people came out for Museum Night on Friday. The Mimara Museum registered the most with 8,900 visitors; The Museum of Arts and Crafts was visited by more than 7,200, the Croatian Museum of Natural History more than 6,200, and over 5,500 attended the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Nikola Tesla Technical Museum.
The exceptional interest in museums is evidenced by the over 6,000 visitors of the Zagreb City Pharmacy and a tour of the pharmacy and its owners from 1915-1947, the HMD said in a statement.
The museum institutions of Rijeka – European Capital of Culture 2020, were visited by around 9,500 people, nearly 6,000 came out in Dubrovnik, and over 24,600 in Split, where the celebrated Archeological Museum together with Salona had over 4,200 visitors.
The Split City Museum had a record of over 7,500 visitors this year. For its first Museum Night, 1,200 visitors were recorded at Brodosplit Museum.
The Museum of Betina Wooden Shipbuilding was visited by 340 people, the Museum of the City of Šibenik saw one thousand, and Krka National Park saw 326.
Almost 14,000 people visited Zadar’s museums, the Archaeological Museum of Istria in Pula had 4,700 visitors, and the Maritime and Historical Museum of Istria saw more than 2,100. Almost 9,400 people visited Varaždin museums, over 2,300 visited the Cultural Center in Lepoglava, and 1,900 visited the Međimurje Museum in Čakovec.
The cities of Karlovac, Sisak, Vukovar, Đakovo and Osijek also recorded excellent attendance, and the organizers also noted the very good presence at Trakošćan Castle and the museums of the Krapina-Zagorje County.
“Communicating various contents to the public – from museum collections, professional, scientific, educational and entertaining contents, to virtual tours of museum exhibits, historic buildings and protected heritage sites, as well as the use of digital technologies, have opened up unprecedented possibilities for inspiration, interpretation and presentation of museum contents,” HMD said.
“With its fantastic response, the audience has confirmed that meeting cultural needs is one of the priorities of all segments of the museum audience. The organizers of Museum Night this year are extremely pleased with the visits and thank all the participants for interesting programs, all visitors, partners and media fort the pleasant atmosphere, which attracted tens of thousands of visitors to Croatian museums, heritage institutions, squares and streets of the cities and municipalities where the programs took place on the warm January Museum Night,” HMD said.
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