LA NUIT DES MUSEES

Editorial de Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres,
Ministre de la culture et de la communication

More than 1,000 museums in France and the rest of Europe have accepted the invitation sent to them by the Direction des Musées de France, on my request, to take part in a new operation entitled La Nuit des Musées (The Night of Museums), which will take place on Saturday, 14 May 2005. I wish to thank them for their positive reaction and to express the sincere hope that they will continue in order to participate to ensure the success of this initiative.

« Light(s) in the Night», the theme selected for this year, will be interpreted in all its various facets : historic, artistic, spiritual, literary, iconographic and symbolical, scientific, technical, etc. Adapted to different types of collections, it has inspired - as this initial programme reveals - a wide diversity of events of a quality and originality that will reinforce the attraction of this occasion to discover museum collections by night.

Conceived in a festive and convivial spirit, La Nuit des Musées (The Night of Museums) will start at sunset and finish at around one o’clock in the morning. It will be a golden opportunity to introduce the widest possible public to their common heritage through the collections of our museums. And it will also attract new visitors, especially the young who frequently have other cultural practices, as well as people who live nearby but do not always dare to enter museums.

I am sure the warm welcome that will be given to the public on this special evening will encourage them to join the increasingly growing number of regular visitors more often so that museums become a place where curiosity, sensitivity and the intellect can be nourished indefinitely.

 

Renaud DONNEDIEU de VABRES
Minister of Culture and Communication