More than 203,000 people visited museums across Latvia on Night of Museums

RIGA - On Saturday, May 13, more than 244 Latvian museums and other cultural institutions participated in the European Night of Museums for the nineteenth time, drawing more than 203,000 visitors throughout Latvia.

The War Museum was the most popular museum during the Night of Museums, drawing a total of 14,608 visitors, as Lita Kokale, head of the Public Relations Department at the Culture Ministry, informed LETA.

Daina Ratniece, deputy head of the Department of Archives, Libraries and Museums at the Culture Ministry, said that a total of 202,984 people visited museums across Latvia during the Night of Museums.

According to Ratniece, this is the number of people who visited museums and the number does not include visitors to other institutions that remained open during the Night of Museums, including Riga Castle, Saeima building and many others.

The theme of this year's Night of Museums was "Creation". In Riga and Pieriga, 57 museums and cultural institutions remained open during the Night of Museums, as well as 187 museums in the regions.

As usual, Vidzeme was the most active region as a total of 73 museums and other cultural institutions were operating there on the Night of Museums, followed by Kurzeme with 60 museums, Latgale with 36 museums, and Zemgale with 18 museums.

Since 2008, the number of people visiting museums and other cultural institutions during the Night of Museums in Latvia has exceeded 200,000 every year.

The number of museums participating in the Night of Museums has been steadily increasing as well as the number of other institutions taking part: theaters, exhibition halls, libraries, public administration institutions, state and private companies.