On Museum Nights in Paris, museums stay open until early morning hours, and city squares are teeming with performers and musicians. Young people from all over the world come to Paris in droves to wander through its museums and streets at night, in the light of burning torches and amid the sound of beating drums. 

Holding a Museum Night in Moscow required overcoming much prejudice and superstition, but nevertheless, this year the city will hold the fourth such event supported by the Moscow Government. Once again, the museums, galleries will work until 2 A.M.; once again, we’ll see the palaces and mansions usually closed to the public open their doors; gallery directors, critics, art historians and celebrities will offer guided tours; there’ll be bus tours of museums and heritage buildings, interactive guide screens on the streets, and a guide map to Open Moscow.

This year, we’ll see even more than that: the federal museums that used to close earlier on previous Nights will offer special open air programs, along with poetry readings, creative master classes, a performance entitled Drawings in the Sand, and, not so incongruously, a concert of classical music performed by a symphonic orchestra.

All in one Night at the Museum.