International Museum Day

18 May
Every year since 1977 International Museum Day is organised worldwide around May 18, coordinated by the International Council of Museums (ICOM). The event highlights a specific theme that changes every year and that is at the heart of the international museum community’s preoccupations.
The International Museum Day provides the opportunity for museum professionals to meet the public and alert them as to the challenges that museums face. Indeed, following the definition of museums provided by ICOM, a museum is a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment. International Museum Day therefore serves as a platform to raise public awareness on the role museums play in the development of society today, on an international level.


Ways to celebrate International Museum Day:

Visit a museum
If you can't visit today, learn a little more about your local museum
donate to a museum
volunteer to work at a museum.