This Year’s Museum Night Brings Voices and Stories Into Focus

On Saturday, May 16 at 6 PM, museums across Estonia will open their doors and welcome visitors late into the evening to offer a unique cultural experience. This year’s theme is “Night of Voices”, a poetic and multi-layered choice that leaves room for many different interpretations.

Museums are places of listening and reflection, where different eras, voices, and perspectives meet. We believe that every voice matters. Some whisper, some call out, and some echo loudly across generations. This year’s theme invites us to consider whose voices we hear and listen to, and whose we do not: whose stories, opinions, and experiences continue to resonate, and whose voices have been silenced over time.

“Museums tell many different stories,” says Anu Viltrop, Executive Director of the Estonian Museums Association. “But their meaning only truly comes to life when people are able to experience them, listen to them, and take part in the conversation. A democratic society needs many voices: different experiences, interpretations, and opinions.”

According to Viltrop, the aim of this year’s Museum Night is to remind people that culture must not be accessible only to the chosen few. “Access to culture is everyone’s right, not a privilege,” Viltrop emphasizes. This year, more than 175 museums and memory institutions are participating, with all counties across Estonia represented, so everyone can find a suitable place to visit.

Museum Night is a long-standing event that takes place once a year on a Saturday evening in May, when museums and other cultural memory institutions stay open later than usual and welcome visitors for the symbolic price of one euro in celebration of the European Night of Museums. The Estonian Museums Association has been organizing Museum Night since 2009. It was also the first year the event was held nationwide across Estonia. To date, the association has organized Museum Night 17 times.

Museum Night is organized each year by Estonian museums together with the Estonian Museums Association. The slogan for the first Museum Night was “Things in the Night”, followed in 2010 by “Stories in the Night”, in 2011 by “Treasures in the Night”, in 2012 by “Cinema in the Night”, in 2013 by “People in the Night”, in 2014 by “Stars in the Night”, in 2015 by “Music in the Night”, in 2016 by “Waves in the Night”, in 2017 by “Games in the Night”, in 2018 by “Celebration in the Night”, in 2019 by “Patterns in the Night”, in 2020 by “Time in the Night”, in 2022 by “Dreams in the Night”, in 2023 by “Movement in the Night”, in 2024 by “Freedom in the Night”, in 2025 by “Books in the Night”, and in 2026 by “Voices in the Night”.

Last year marked the 16th Museum Night, inspired by the Year of the Estonian Book and carrying the subtitle “Books in the Night”. The event brought more than 66,000 visitors to museums across Estonia.

More information about the museums and other memory institutions participating on May 16, 2026, as well as special programmes, bus routes, and other activities, can be found at muuseumioo.ee.