Great days out

Most Londoners will be familiar with the city’s vast number of museums and galleries, with a seemingly unlimited array of exhibitions on offer; the only problem faced is which to choose.

But what about outside the capital?

This May sees cultural spaces across the UK open their doors with added vigour for Museums and Galleries Month 2006 (MGM), running from 29 April to 4 June.

The biggest celebration of its kind in the world, MGM 2006 intends to demystify the museum and gallery experience for the uninitiated.

It aims to encourage visitors to meet, learn, connect and be inspired in these spaces – and hopefully return in the future.

With over 1,000 museums and galleries taking part, the month’s theme ‘Making Connections: Past, present and future’ will be represented with events everywhere from the pocket-sized spaces to large institutions.

National and regional learn from one another

Organised by The Campaign for Museums, MGM is supported by Arts Council England and Renaissance in the Regions, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council’s (MLA) £100 million programme to transform regional museums.

Renaissance in the Regions is creating partnerships between regional and national museums through new cross-sector ventures.

“National and regional museums have a great deal to learn from each other,” says Chair of the MLA, Mark Wood.

“These partnerships enable objects to be seen in different parts of the country; they support museums in sharing information, experience and ideas about collections and audiences.”

Tate themes on the Thames

In London, the Tate Modern gallery is staging a major new arts festival, ‘UBS Openings: The Long Weekend’.

The gallery is injecting some fun into the weekend with free one-off performances and art-movement themed days: Futurist Friday, Surrealist Saturday, Abstract Sunday and Minimalist Monday.

A centrepiece of the event is The Great Turbine Challenge – a giant, art-themed board game measuring 3,000 square feet, which visitors can take part in.

Unearthing hidden treasures

The National Trust takes the visitor off the beaten track with events that reveal oddities such as the life of a lighthouse keeper at Souter Lighthouse, Whitburn – proving that museums are not always found where we might expect.

For the housebound, the People’s Museum BBC TV Series – on air during MGM 2006 – will select different objects from museums and galleries around the UK that will be featured each day.

“The most important thing is making sure that people know that it is happening,” says director of Campaigns for Museums, Ylva French.

“So we are using every means of communication within our limited budget.”

A travelling collaboration

The unifying spirit of the event sees a network of galleries and independent museums join forces to organise activities such as ‘Around Warwickshire’.

Two characters based on those in Jules Verne’s novel ‘Around the World in Eighty Days’, Phileas Fogg and his sidekick Passepartout, embark on a journey ‘Around Warwickshire in 20 ways.’

They will travel from one event to another using as many forms as transport as possible, from walking with someone dressed as a Roman soldier to flying in hot-air balloons.

“It’s a way of linking together all of the transport museums and heritage collections; everything from one person’s collection of buses to a full museum,” says Glynis Powell of Museums Development at Warwickshire County Council.

“It’s not just for the kids but for complete families as we’ll be collecting stories and reminiscences to build on knowledge of how transport has changed our lives in the county.”