In March this year, Tallinn launched the Museum Sundays initiative at city-owned museums to raise awareness of museum activities and improve access to culture. During 2022, the initiative has attracted a large number of visitors, with 14 museums and exhibition halls now participating.

Tallinn Museum Sundays, where admission to museums is free on the first Sunday of every month, started on 6 March this year and will run ten times in 2022. The 59,796 visitors who came to these events give an idea of the success of the initiative and the cultural indifference of the citizens of Tallinn.

 

Deputy Mayor Kaarel Oja was delighted that the Museum Sundays programme had been so well received in Tallinn. "The numbers of visitors exceeding all expectations are, of course, encouraging, but at the same time point out how even the relatively low ticket price is actually a major obstacle for many people to visit museums. We have learnt a lot from the event over the year, and it has been a great pleasure to see how the range of participating museums has gradually grown. We will take the lessons learned on board and will certainly continue with the Museum Sundays next year," said Oja.

The record-breaking month of 2022 was August, when seven museums had the highest number of visitors on Museum Day. April, May and November also saw record-breaking attendances.

 

The Kiek in de Kök Museum's best-selling Museum Sunday was in August, when 4,174 visitors came to the museum. August also saw the Vilde Museum's best-attended Museum Sunday (158 visitors) and the Estonian Museum of Contemporary Art's record-breaking day (232 visitors). The largest number of visitors to the Singing Field Visitor Centre was in April, with 300 visitors. The Tallinn Art Hall Lasnamäe Pavilion had 238 visitors on Museum Sunday in December.

 

Heli Nurger, Director of the Tallinn City Museum, said that the Museum Sundays have been a positive experience. "The Museum Sundays have brought a whole new audience to museums. Of course, the museum also has to take into account the need to shape the museum experience of this new group, to offer them the opportunity to grow into knowledgeable museum visitors," Nurger said. "The launch of Museum Sundays has also enabled the museum to develop a network of volunteers more quickly than planned."

 

Maarja Vaino, director of the Tallinn Literary Centre, said that over the course of the year, people who had previously not known about the writers' museums or had not considered visiting them found their way to their museums. "On the first Sunday of every month, a steady number of people started coming to our museums, and it was easy to fit them in," Vaino said. "For us, it was an opportunity to get to know a new audience and we are delighted that the feedback on the visits and the museums has been very positive. This is also confirmed by the fact that almost all visitors went through three of the writer's museums - one museum inspired to go to the next. And there were plenty of repeat visits to one museum."

 

All branches of the Tallinn City Museum participated in the first Museum Sunday: The Tallinn City Life Museum in the former merchant's house on Vene Street, the Museum of Photography in the former Rae prison, Tallinn's first community museum in Kalamaja, the Miiamilla Children's Museum in Kadriorg, the Peter I House Museum, the Kiek in de Kök museum with its bastion walkways, the Tallinn Russian Museum and the three Tallinn Literary Museums in Kadriorg: the Vilde, Tammsaare and Mati Und museums.

 

This year, several other museums joined the Museum Sunday programme. In early April, the Tallinn Song Festival Visitor Centre joined the programme, in May the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia and the Kaja Gallery of the Cultural Centre, and in November the Lasnamäe Pavilion of the Tallinn Art Hall joined the programme.

 

The Museum Sundays initiative will continue as a monthly event in 2023.

 

Museum Sundays in 2023 will take place on 8 January, 5 February, 5 March, 2 April, 7 May, 4 June, 2 July, 6 August, 3 September, 1 October, 5 November and 3 December.

 

Museum Sunday is an initiative of the City of Tallinn to draw more attention to the daily activities of museums and the city's rich cultural life, and to make it more accessible to both residents and visitors of Tallinn.

 

For more information visit https://www.tallinn.ee/en/museumsunday.