Museums around Britain are opening at night next week – here are the must-sees
Britain’s museums and galleries are opening after hours next week for a series of special events. Here, Chris Leadbeater takes his pick of the best.
Good nights
So, what’s all this about? Well, we approaching a week of Museums At Night – a four-day mini-festival (May 16-19) which will see museums around the country stay open for after-hours events. Ooh, that sounds clandestine, a bit – dare we say it – naughty.
Well, you could say that. But it’s better to look at this as something akin to ‘Night At The Museum’, the 2006 movie with the comedy actor Ben Stiller, where lots of exhibits come to life and Robin Williams gads about as Theodore Roosevelt. Except without Stiller. Or Williams. Or any talking mummies. Basically, it’s a series of evening specials, hosted between 5pm and midnight in museums across the UK. More at museumsatnight.org.uk.
Wedded bliss
What’s the next best thing to running off to get hitched in a blur of passion and impulse? It’s reading about people who’ve done exactly that. No, it is. Step forward the Blacksmiths Shop Museum (gretnagreen.com) in Gretna Green, where “The Path To True Love” (May 18; 6.30-9pm; £5) will explore this scene of rushed weddings, and offer the opportunity to swap (fake) vows at the famous anvil. That sounds foolproof.
Join the Wolfgang
As the Austrian pop icon Falco (almost) once sang, “Won’t you amuse me with your operatic vision, Amadeus?”. What? Trinity Buoy Wharf in London’s Docklands is also in on the act, via a double bill of Mozart “pop-up opera” (Bastien und Bastienne, Der Schauspieldirektor), on May 16 (7-10pm; £17.50; trinitybuoywharf.com).
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Fake news
You can’t trust anyone these days. Not the politicians, not the media. And not even institutions like the Infirmary Museum (medicalmuseum.org.uk/the-infirmary) in Worcester, which will run a “Museum of Lies” evening (May 16; three sessions; free) as part of the nocturnal showcase. Misinformation will be weaved into the facts on tours of this 18th-century hospital, with a quiz and prizes for those who can identify the porkies.
At a canter
Is it possible to make Geoffrey Chaucer – that scourge of GCSE students, with his 14th-century musings about nuns and priests and the Wife of Bath – more accessible? Yes. Visit The Canterbury Tales Attraction (canterburytales.org.uk) in, erm, Canterbury, where Geoff’s yarns will be re-examined by storytellers (May 16-19; 7pm-8.30pm; £10). Questions are encouraged. “Will there be any homework?” is a fine one.
Unusual haunts
What to do in Peterborough on a Wednesday evening? If it’s May 16 (7.30-9pm; £4), you can opt to be scared into some sort of stupor at the Peterborough Museum (vivacity.org), via “An Evening at the Priestgate Vaults”. This 16th-century cellar is said to be haunted – in this case, by costumed characters from the building’s past. “Not suitable for those of a nervous disposition” advises the promotional blurb. Cripes, Shaggy!
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Bonnie Clyde
So, it’s May 18. You’re in Glasgow. And you want a night of nautical-accented fun. Obviously. So you need the Glenlee (thetallship.com) – a museum ship on the Clyde, built in the city in 1896, which is joining in the Museums At Night joviality. How? Something to do with pirates, or rigging, or knots? Is it knots? No, it’s Glaswegian comedians, games, beer and hot meat pies. So there (7.30-11.30pm; £12, over-18s only).
Gnasher knows
Kids across Newcastle will leap at the chance to stay up late and pretend their parents’ idea of humour is still funny at Seven Stories, The National Centre for Children’s Books (sevenstories.org.uk), which will host an evening (May 18; 7-11pm; free) dedicated to comic art – complete with cartoonists from The Beano, and a tuck shop.
Not Potter
How do you transform the National Waterfront Museum (museum.wales/swansea) in Swansea (which “tells the story of industry and innovation in Wales over the past 300 years”) into a magical evening setting? By asking visitors to follow a trail, design a popcorn box, fill it with said snack, and watch JK Rowling’s ‘Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them’ (May 18; 6.30-9.30pm; £3.50).
Class act
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery (bristolmuseums.org.uk) raises the tone via “Trying It On” (May 16; 7.30-10pm; free), an evening of dance performances coordinated by Lea Anderson, and a chance to peruse tapestries – drily dissecting the British obsession with class – by Grayson Perry.
