International Museum Day on May 18


Museums are wonderful places where the past meets the present. They are strongrooms of numerous masterpieces, the heritage of different generations and various cultures, which are open for the public. There is a special holiday dedicated to honor museums and their workers – the International Museum Day. Every spring, for the past 34 years, museums around the world have celebrated May 18 as International Museum Day.

This year, the worldwide community of museums will celebrate IMD with the theme ‘Museum and memory’. Museums store memory and tell stories. They have numerous objects in their collections that are basic to the memory of the communities we live in.

These objects are the expression of countries’ natural and cultural heritage. Many of them are fragile, some endangered and needing special care and conservation.

IMD 2011 will be an occasion for visitors to discover and rediscover individual and collective memory.

The ICOM established IMD in 1977 to encourage public awareness on the role of museums in society. Momentum has been rising unabated ever since. In 2010, IMD garnered record-breaking participation, with almost 30,000 museums hosting events in more than 95 countries.

Editor:Du Xiaodan |Source: CNTV.CN