Museum Night, questioned

The national network of museums in Romania announces that it will not coordinate the organization of this year’s edition of the Museums and asks the Ministry of Culture to include the event on the list of strategic projects of the institution, in order to benefit from the necessary financing.

‘This is the kind of communication that we would never have wanted to do. Unfortunately, the national network of museums in Romania, along with its event team, has to announce the public that it will not coordinate the organization of the 21st edition of the Night of the Museums, which should take place on May 17, 2025. It is important to inform you that our decision is not a Romanian, the Romanian authorities. Despite the hopes and effort, we finally had to make this decision due to measures to dram the annual financial resources allocated to most museums in the country, part of the strategy to reduce the country’s budget deficit ‘, RNMR said on Thursday, in a statement posted on his Facebook page.

The RNMR also believes that the decision of the Romanian Government to organize the second round of the presidential elections on Sunday after the Museum Night contributed to the creation of a difficult situation regarding the organization of this cultural event.

‘It is not just about the sensitive and tense context in which these elections take place, but especially the fact that many museum employees are trained in the electoral process from different constituencies of the country. Many of our museums work with under-dimensioned staff, so that any decision of our colleagues to collaborate, during their free time, in other projects or events eliminates any possibility of organizing under optimal conditions of the night’s event ‘, the organization points out.

According to the quoted source, RNMR was consistent with the idea of ​​organizing this extremely expected event every year, sometimes in the hardest situations, this year the organization asking the Ministry of Culture to include the event on the list of strategic projects of the institution, to benefit from the necessary financing.

‘We managed to have an edition of the night of online museums, when the pandemic generated by Covid affected the whole world. Last year we organized the Night of Museums despite the legitimate protests of the entire museum community that substantially diminished our cultural offer offered to the public. However, the battle with the lack of financial and human resources cannot be won when we talk about organizing a major event, a true cultural and social phenomenon. The time has come to address the Ministry of Culture with the hope that, after 20 years in which we have demonstrated the value, success and benefits of society and museums by this cultural brand, to accept our proposal to include us on the list of strategic projects of the ministry. In this way, beyond the recognition of the importance of the event, we will be able to benefit from that financing that can help us, to be more interesting and more attractive to our audience, « reports RNMR.

The RNMR states that those cultural museums or entities that still want to participate in the 2025 edition of the Museums Night can do so without benefiting from the services, representation and promotion tire offered year by year, under normal conditions.

« Museum Night is for anyone who wants to be part of our family even when we do not take organization as official partners at European level, » the RNMR statement said.