Why are museums open at night?

The space of Da Nang Museum applies many technologies to increase interaction with viewers. Photo: HS

1. New York is a city of museums, with about 170 museums, most of which are concentrated in Manhattan. The museums here are diverse in their themes, from architecture, art, religion, fashion , technology to natural history, social history, community history... Among them, the largest and most visited are the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MET), the Museum of Natural History, and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).

In addition to serving visitors during the day, museums also have evening opening hours. Many museums choose weekends because after a week of work, many people have a need for entertainment, art, and culture. The MET is open until 9 pm on Fridays and Saturdays, while the Rubin Museum (specializing in Himalayan Art) is open until 10 pm on Fridays.

Some other museums only have evening hours on the first and last Fridays of each month, for example, MoMA is open until 8pm on the first Friday and the Intrepid Museum is open until 9pm on the last Friday of each month. To avoid overlapping schedules and give visitors more options, many museums choose other days of the week instead of focusing on Friday nights. The Museum of Jewish Heritage is open until 8pm every Thursday, while the Brooklyn Museum is open until 11pm on the first Saturday of each month.

Museums in New York all have preferential ticket prices, and are divided into two groups. The first group is free during the specified time frame, the second group applies a “Pay What You Wish” ticket policy, according to which each visitor can pay a minimum of $1.

In addition to discounted tickets, museums in New York also organize many programs to serve visitors in the evening. Creating programs and events requires planning, preparation and communication on information channels in advance so that visitors can get information and choose the time to visit, and enjoy the services to the fullest. Programs organized in parallel with evening opening include: Guided tours, film screenings, talks, music performances, experiential activities such as painting, sculpture, making crafts, etc.

Some museums offer music with DJs and light refreshments for a fee in the bar or restaurant area. Sometimes I go to the Brooklyn Museum for “First Saturdays” in the evening, simply because the museum has music playing in the main lobby, and this becomes a “dance floor” for locals and tourists, where people can dance to the music and forget the fatigue of the working week. Or at the end of each semester, I go to the MET Museum for the “College’s Night” event.

This is a free open night program for students, held once a semester. Accordingly, the museum only opens one gallery, and the main lobby serves music and snacks. Students meet here to enjoy art, make friends, and immerse themselves in music after a hard semester.

2. Like New York, London is packed with museums, with about 190 museums, of various sizes and themes. Most visitors to London spend time visiting the city's famous museums, such as the British Museum, the Natural History Museum, the National Gallery, the Tate Modern, and the Victoria & Albert Museum (V&A).

Some museums in London are open free on Friday evenings for all to see permanent exhibitions, but special exhibitions are subject to a fee. Depending on their preferences, visitors can choose their favorite museum to enjoy Friday evenings with works of art, films, talks, musical performances, etc.

Opening at night on weekends is a common trend among museums in the West for a number of reasons. First, it is a way to increase accessibility for visitors and increase revenue for museums. Tourists coming to a city have different needs and schedules. Opening museums at night creates flexibility in their schedules, giving visitors more choices of destinations and the opportunity to visit museums if their schedules do not allow it during the day. As the number of visitors to the museum increases thanks to night openings, revenue from ticket sales and accompanying services also increases.

Second, opening at night allows local people to visit the museum, thereby fulfilling the role of education and service to the community. This explains why museums choose to open at night on Friday or Saturday, when local people have a rest after a week of work, and implement preferential policies for this group of people.

3. In the island nation of Singapore, national museums are open daily from 10am to 7pm; on Fridays, the Asian Civilisations Museum and the Peranakan Museum are open until 9pm. Regarding ticket policies, Singapore citizens and long-term residents are free to enter all public museums. However, international visitors must purchase tickets. In Thailand, museums do not have regular night openings on weekends. However, many museums participate in the annual “Night at the Museum” festival. Initially, this was an initiative of the Bangkok National Museum; later other museums responded, creating a major event of the year.

In 2024, the festival will last from December 5 to the end of the month, with the participation of 53 museums across the country. Accordingly, each museum opens during a time frame this December and organizes many activities such as: Guided tours, music performances, night markets, cuisine, installation art, light projections, handicraft workshops... Some museums are completely free, and others charge fees but have preferential policies for locals and students.

In Vietnam, there are not many museums that open regularly at night, except for some historical sites in Hanoi such as the Temple of Literature - Quoc Tu Giam, Thang Long Imperial Citadel, and Hoa Lo Prison, which are organizing night tours to serve visitors quite effectively.

In Da Nang city, museums managed by the Department of Culture and Sports are only open to visitors during the day. Recently, many opinions have suggested that in order to attract tourists to Da Nang, museums should open regularly at night. However, there are also opposing opinions that, given the current demand for visiting (with tickets), opening museums at night in Da Nang is not necessary.

It is necessary to focus on organizing quality and diverse daytime activities to meet the needs of visitors when visiting museums. At night, visitors can participate in other activities. Particularly in the gardens of museums, it is possible to organize some suitable nighttime activities, creating more cultural space for the local community and visitors; obviously, this is also quite costly and needs to be considered to ensure the necessary conditions.

Thus, to open at night to serve tourists, museums must consider factors of finance, human resources, security and visitors' needs. In conditions where they are not ready, it is not necessary to open at night regularly. However, it is possible to consider opening at night with a frequency of once a month, or on some important holidays to mainly serve the local community, and also partly serve tourists and promote tourism of the city. Lessons learned from the model of opening at night in museums of the above countries can be studied to apply effectively and appropriately to the reality of each museum in Da Nang.

Dr. NGUYEN HOANG HUONG DUYEN

Source: https://baodanang.vn/channel/5433/202504/vi-sao-cac-bao-tang-mo-cua-vao-ban-dem-4005839/