From March, visitors will be able to visit Tallinn’s museums for free on the first Sunday of every month. The Museum Sundays with free admission is a practice common to many cities in the world.

According to Kaarel Oja, Tallinn's Deputy Mayor for Culture, the city had planned to start free Museum Sundays already in February, but due to the worrying health situation, the start was postponed until next month. "Seeing the great interest in the Museum Sundays, we decided to be responsible and start in March," said the Deputy Mayor.

The last two years have affected the cultural participation habits of the citizens of Tallinn, and one of the objectives of the Museum Sundays is to overcome the cultural disruptions that have occurred. "On the one hand, the absence of a ticket price is important for free Museum Sundays, as surveys reveal this to be a barrier to museum visits for some. On the other hand, and perhaps more importantly, the initiative of Museum Sundays is an opportunity to draw more attention to the activities of our museums on a regular basis," explained Oja.

"Visitor numbers have declined somewhat in museums over the last two years, and while we hope to see a recovery, statistics as well as the observations of museums suggest that some visitors and audiences have lost contact with culture for longer periods. The Museum Days are one way to help re-establish these contacts and to boost visits to museums," said the Deputy Mayor. In the latest satisfaction survey, residents of Tallinn gave the fear of being infected as the most common reason for not visiting museums, followed by lack of time. Ticket prices were also given as a barrier by a significant proportion of people.

Initially, the Tallinn City Museum with its seven branches is involved in the project, and as welcome news, three museums of the Tallinn Literary Centre have also joined. In the future, the city also hopes to motivate other museums in the city to get involved. "Tallinn is known to have one of the highest number of museums per capita among European cities, they are important to Tallinners and people are eager to visit them," stressed Oja.

Starting on 6 March, the Museum Sunday programme will include all branches of Tallinn City Museum: the Tallinn City Life Museum (Vene street 17), the Photo Museum in the former Town Prison (Raekoja 4/6), Tallinn's first community museum in Kalamaja (Kotzebue 16), the Miiamilla Children's Museum in Kadriorg (Koidula 21c), the Peter I House Museum (Mäekalda 2), the Kiek in de Kök Fortifications Museum with bastion walkways (Komandandi tee 2), the Tallinn Russian Museum (Pikk 29a), as well as three Tallinn Literary Museums in Kadriorg: Vilde Museum (Roheline aas 3), Tammsaare Museum (Koidula 12a) and Tallinn's newest museum, the Mati Unt Museum (L. Koidula 17).

Free Museum Sundays will be organised in accordance with all precautions in force.

For more information on the Museum Sunday, visit tallinn.ee/museumsunday.