This year's Museums and Galleries Month will offer a wide range of cultural events throughout May exploring the theme of ideas and innovation.
They will address topics as diverse as re-enacting the Wars of the Roses to events such as the Grunty Fen Rhubarb Festival, which will involve attendees competing with their prized veg (see box).
The Museums at Night Weekend will take place on 16-18 May. The highlight will be a screening of Wallace & Gromit in The Wrong Trousers at almost 100 museums and galleries.
Museums and Galleries Month will climax with the announcement of the winner of the Art Fund Prize (formerly the Gulbenkian Prize), which will be presented in the last week of May.
There will also be a focus on a new arts programme, which aims to encourage a relationship between artists and museums with seminars addressing subjects such as commissioning art in a museum context.
This year's Show Scotland, organised by Museums Galleries Scotland (formerly the Scottish Museums Council) will take place from 2-5 May. The initiative has received twice as many grant applications as in previous years.
Cultural diversity is explored through a day-long celebration of traditional Japanese culture at Perth Museum and Art Gallery, which is being staged in collaboration with the Scottish Japanese Residents Association.
Meat-lovers will be well catered for at the Grand Almond Valley Sausage Exposition at the Almond Valley Heritage Centre.
Museums and Galleries Month is organised by the Campaign for Museums and funded by the Arts Council England.
They will address topics as diverse as re-enacting the Wars of the Roses to events such as the Grunty Fen Rhubarb Festival, which will involve attendees competing with their prized veg (see box).
The Museums at Night Weekend will take place on 16-18 May. The highlight will be a screening of Wallace & Gromit in The Wrong Trousers at almost 100 museums and galleries.
Museums and Galleries Month will climax with the announcement of the winner of the Art Fund Prize (formerly the Gulbenkian Prize), which will be presented in the last week of May.
There will also be a focus on a new arts programme, which aims to encourage a relationship between artists and museums with seminars addressing subjects such as commissioning art in a museum context.
This year's Show Scotland, organised by Museums Galleries Scotland (formerly the Scottish Museums Council) will take place from 2-5 May. The initiative has received twice as many grant applications as in previous years.
Cultural diversity is explored through a day-long celebration of traditional Japanese culture at Perth Museum and Art Gallery, which is being staged in collaboration with the Scottish Japanese Residents Association.
Meat-lovers will be well catered for at the Grand Almond Valley Sausage Exposition at the Almond Valley Heritage Centre.
Museums and Galleries Month is organised by the Campaign for Museums and funded by the Arts Council England.
Highlights of the month
Grunty Fen Rhubarb Festival, Burwell Museum of Fen Edge Village Life (4 May)
Write an ode to the vegetable, learn about rhubarb lacemaking or meet the glamorous Miss Rhubarb herself.
Tried and Transported: Life in Down Gaol (5 May)
Meet the prisoners and discover what life was like in Down Gaol 200 years ago.
Gimme Shelter, Somerset House, London (24 May)
A studio day for budding architects and fashion designers between the ages of 13 and 18 to create a garment that can transform into a shelter.
Tudor Week, Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds (24 May-1 June)
Experts re-enact the ancient grudge match between the houses of York and Lancaster.
Grunty Fen Rhubarb Festival, Burwell Museum of Fen Edge Village Life (4 May)
Write an ode to the vegetable, learn about rhubarb lacemaking or meet the glamorous Miss Rhubarb herself.
Tried and Transported: Life in Down Gaol (5 May)
Meet the prisoners and discover what life was like in Down Gaol 200 years ago.
Gimme Shelter, Somerset House, London (24 May)
A studio day for budding architects and fashion designers between the ages of 13 and 18 to create a garment that can transform into a shelter.
Tudor Week, Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds (24 May-1 June)
Experts re-enact the ancient grudge match between the houses of York and Lancaster.
