Museum "awakens" the potential of the night economy

“Museum Night” is also an effective way for monuments and museums to renew themselves and get closer to the public. No longer confined to operating during office hours, when the city lights up, it is also the time for the elegant and splendid museums to welcome visitors.

Listen to the museum tell stories at night

“Museum Night” is organized under the public-private partnership model, aiming to effectively exploit socialized resources to develop Hanoi’s cultural industry. This is also the first time the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum opens after 5 p.m., limiting the number of visitors to ensure quality and maintain a true art viewing space.

We have witnessed many successful night tourism products at relics and museums, such as Hoa Lo Prison, Thang Long Imperial Citadel, Temple of Literature - Quoc Tu Giam, Ngoc Son Temple... "Museum Night" can be considered a breakthrough of the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum, changing old habits, creating motivation and inspiration for the formation of night tourism products, creating new and more attractive experience products.

(Associate Professor, Dr. BUI HOAI SON)

Mr. Nguyen Anh Minh, Director of the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum, said that “Museum Night” is an idea that has been cherished for a long time, with the orientation of creating a new night tourism product, exploiting the museum’s full potential. Curiosity and love for new things are the driving force that drives visitors to the museum at night to explore the unknown, thereby helping to promote the creative cultural industry. Having been to the museum many times during the day, but for many visitors who love to experience and explore, the night museum is an interesting door, when each artifact, the way of arrangement and the exhibition activities, painting, listening to music… all blend together to tell their own fascinating story. The attraction of “Museum Night” is that with just one destination, people and visitors can choose to participate in interwoven cultural and artistic experiences, throughout a certain theme. The themes and content of the activities change every month, contributing to bringing new experiences, suitable for the four seasons and the dynamic pace of life in the Capital.

“Under the sparkling lights, the works of art by many famous painters become even more attractive to viewers. The psychology of loving new things is the stimulating factor, making the public who love painting not miss this opportunity to enjoy and experience”, shared one of the first guests of “Museum Night”.

Director of the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum Nguyen Anh Minh said that exploring art at night will bring visitors a different experience. Not only will they have the opportunity to admire unique paintings, but they will also have the opportunity to listen to the stories behind each work and immerse themselves in the classical music space. “Museum Night” brings an unforgettable, profound and peaceful experience to visitors amidst the bustling and bustling life outside.

Affirming that cultural and tourism products exploiting nighttime are a new step that many museums are pursuing, Associate Professor Dr. Bui Hoai Son, a member of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture and Society, said that for a long time, when mentioning museums, people and tourists still assume that these are places that are often visited during office hours. But in reality, outside of working hours, tourists today tend to spend a lot of time in the evening for sightseeing and entertainment, including going to museums to explore and experience.

“We have witnessed many successful night tourism products at relics and museums, such as Hoa Lo Prison, Thang Long Imperial Citadel, Temple of Literature - Quoc Tu Giam, Ngoc Son Temple... “Museum Night” can be considered a breakthrough of the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum, changing old habits, creating motivation and inspiration for the formation of night tourism products, creating new and more attractive experiential products”, Associate Professor, Dr. Bui Hoai Son commented.

Many opinions believe that developing cultural and artistic products at night not only creates new appeal but also forms a new habit of enjoying culture for the public. This increases the attraction and contributes to promoting the development of the cultural industry. This special space at night is also a special inspiration for tourists, especially young people. In the long term, the product opens up a new direction for other museums to learn from and organize heritage nights associated with art and culture in the future.

Awakening the potential

With a completely different look, exploring the museum at night has its own characteristics and appeal. In the space of light, silence and special emotions in the evening, the experience with thousands of valuable art objects becomes even more profound. Many young people come to “Museum Night” not only out of curiosity but also with the desire to discover and have new experiences.

For museum staff, the struggle to meet the exploration needs of visitors is also a difficult problem. How can thousands of artifacts that have been static for many years bring new perspectives and new experiences to viewers? How should topics be exploited to always be fresh and avoid boring repetition? With the October theme "Charming Autumn", "Museum Night" brings the opportunity to explore new art spaces, visit galleries, and enjoy collections of valuable artifacts and works. In addition, there is the experience with artists painting portraits, oil paintings, lacquer paintings, silk paintings, or experiencing the automatic commentary application iMuseum VFA, practicing crafts.

traditional crafts, experience printing Dong Ho paintings... In particular, during the journey to discover visual arts, visitors can also enjoy the melodies of romantic music, enjoy concerts performed by artists from the Vietnam National Academy of Music, and interact with guest artists in an emotional art space.

After the October theme “Charming Autumn”, “Museum Night” will continue to be held regularly on the last Friday of each month, with “Winter Street Stories” (November 28) and “Missing December 26” (December 26). Before the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum, a few years ago, the Hoa Lo Prison relic site made an impression with its night-time relic discovery tours, followed by the Thang Long Imperial Citadel, Ngoc Son Temple and the Temple of Literature - Quoc Tu Giam relic site. Mr. Le Xuan Kieu, Director of the Center for Cultural and Scientific Activities of the Temple of Literature - Quoc Tu Giam, said that the night tour is an experiment to bring new effectiveness and attraction to tourists, as these are subjects with unlimited time for discovery and experience. For two consecutive years, the Temple of Literature - Quoc Tu Giam has launched attractive night tour products, with highlights being the 3D mapping films "History in Stone" and "The Essence of Taoism", bringing emotions when admiring the splendid and attractive night view in this ancient and sacred space.

Exploiting the chain of activities to develop night tourism products in the capital with the criteria of diversity, uniqueness, sustainability and quality is also the direction that the capital's tourism industry has determined over the past many years. According to some businesses and tourism experts, Hanoi has many activities and services in the evening to serve tourists, but there are not many truly attractive and unique products. In particular, tourism companies promoting coordination with relics and museums to create different experiences for tourists is a direction that promises a lot of potential. On the contrary, it also requires museums and relics to make efforts to innovate and regularly build attractive products, including tours and night tourism products.

Tourism and cultural experts also noted that the development of night tourism will help “awaken” some museums and relics that are “sleeping” in the capital. After the products of Hoa Lo Prison, Thang Long Imperial Citadel, Temple of Literature or Vietnam Fine Arts Museum, etc., Hanoi still needs more night tours with its own identity to continue attracting tourists, especially foreign visitors.

Source: https://baovanhoa.vn/van-hoa/bao-tang-danh-thuc-tiem-nang-kinh-te-dem-180424.html