125 museums of Armenia and Artsakh to take part in events of  International Museum Day 

ArmInfo. Today, on May 18, the International Museum Day is celebrated in Armenia and all over the world. This year, permanent and temporary exhibitions will be  available for local residents and tourists  on May 18 and May 21 in 125 museums in Armenia and Artsakh.

In particular, as Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and  Sports Alfred Kocharyan noted during a press conference, the museums  of Armenia and Artsakh prepared 122 temporary and permanent  expositions, 30 educational programs, 40 concerts and 124 cultural  events on the occasion of the International Museum Day.

It was noted that on May 18, everyone will be able to visit museums  free of charge during working hours, and on May 21, within the  framework of the "Night of Museums" all-European initiative, from  11:00 to 00:00.

Summing up the results of last year, Kocharyan noted that for the  whole of 2021, about 1 million people, 210 thousand students visited  the museums of Armenia, 10 thousand exhibits were replenished with  museum funds, more than 2 thousand scientific and educational  programs were prepared.

At the same time, he stressed that the problems in this area are  numerous. As priorities, he called the need to introduce a unified  electronic system for the online sale of tickets to museums, the  implementation of major repairs, personnel issues, etc.

In this regard, answering the question of an ArmInfo correspondent,  Head of the Department of Cultural Heritage and Folk Crafts of the  Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of the Republic of  Armenia Astghik Marabyan noted that now an interesting field for  professional cooperation is being created in the country in  connection with the relocation of citizens of Ukraine and Russia to  Armenia. In particular, she stressed that among the visitors there  are a large number of industry specialists who are already gradually  starting to collaborate with local museums.

The decision to establish the International Museum Day was made at  the XI General Conference of the International Council of Museums  (ICOM), held in 1977.

Night of Museums - an event dedicated to the International Museum  Day, during which you can view museum expositions at night. On this  night, many museums are open to visitors after sunset and almost  until morning. The first "Night of Museums" was held in Berlin in  1997. Armenia joined the initiative about 20 years ago.