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21st Long Night of Museums Saturday 25th August 2007, 6pm to 2am The original of all Long Nights celebrates its birthday ten years on. Over the course of 20 Long Museum Nights, this fantastic idea has never ceased to inspire. And how did it begin? The first Long Night arrived, and the heavens opened - wet, cold, and yet splendid. Everyone was swept along by the desire for success: museum staff, the drivers of the hopelessly overcrowded buses ("who could have thought, that there would be so many…"), and above all the visitors. As low were the temperatures, so long were the queues for the museums. And the faces of those waiting were all friendly, and full of expectation. What a charming idea to be entering a museum after closing time. Queuing had become an exciting experience! There were new record levels of visitors twice a year. The real cultural event was the meeting of an enormous audience with itself. That is no small achievement. (Volker Hassemer, in the current anniversary edition of the MuseumsJournal). This magic still reigns today. For this anniversary, 110 museums, collections, archives, memorials, and exhibition houses will be on show. Whoever has not yet managed to have a look at the re-opened Bode-Museum, or the restored Saurian in the wonderfully rearranged Natural History Museum, will have ample opportunity to do so during the Long Night. The 'Haus der Kulturen der Welt' will be celebrating its reopening after a year under construction. Berlin Cathedral, which is always a visitor magnet during the Long Night, will once more be taking part despite financial and structural problems like the missing cross on the dome. Some venues will be celebrating their own anniversaries: the Anti-war museum has been in existence for 25 years, the society for Berlin's underworld looks back on 10 years of work underground, and the Labyrinth children's museum has been around for ten years. Programme The anniversary programme will be based on well-tried formulae, and will present popular long-running events of years gone by alongside completely new ones. Here is a small selection from the wide variety on offer: At the Potsdamer Platz Culture Forum, the Oberkreuzberger nasal flute orchestra, Berlin's Laptoporchester, and various other exotic orchestras will be competing against one another, whilst at the other end of the city the 17 Hippies will be dancing the night away at the Ethnological Museum in Dahlem. Also in Dahlem, for the first time the combined collections of the Museum for Indian Art and the Museum for East-Asian Art will be on show in a joint Asia-programme. The 'Gemäldegalerie' (picture gallery) director Bernd Wolfgang Lindemann will be giving a tour, called "Best of Gemäldegalerie", through his personal selection of the gallery's considerable collection of European painting. The largest architectural hall on the Museum Island, the Pergamon altar, will be filled once an hour with a spherical world of sound by Jens Zygar's gong playing. The Zille Museum, which reopened in April after much restructuring, will be presenting its new exhibition. Berlin goes swimming in the nearby Ephraim-Palace, where a special exhibition recounts the changing history of swimming in the capital city. In the information centre at the memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe, there will be a varied programme of readings and discussions, with amongst others, Knut Elstermann, Wolf Biermann, Michael Degen, and the State Secretary André Schmitz. In the 'Käthe-Kollwitz-Museum', Jutta Wachowiak will be reading from the artist's moving diary. The Ceramics Museum will be congratulating Hedwig Bollhagen on his 100th birthday with a grand special exhibition; Lothar Malzière will be speaking at the opening. The theme at the DDR-Museum is "Switching off in an original living room" while Albi plays unknown pearls of DDR music on record for your acoustic pleasure. The German Historical Museum invites you to their Biedermeier Long Night, with tours through the current special exhibition, "The discovery of simplicity - Biedermeier". Exclusively for the Long Night, the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf museum of local history will be showing collections from the Baltic Fashion Awards and Rütli-Wear from the school that got itself in the headlines and that now displays work in the Neukölln Museum. What would the Long Night be without all the inquisitive night owls? The Energy-Museum will thank its visitors for their loyalty by putting on a large Grill-party; all free as long as the stock lasts. In the Museum for national coinage, every visitor will receive a Long Night of Museums commemorative medallion. Opening The current mayor Klaus Wowereit will open the Long Night of Museums with Berlin's Museum directors, who are all invited beforehand to the 'Rote Rathaus' (Berlin's town hall) for an anniversary reception. An exhibition of photos and posters in the 'Wappensaal' will show a montage of all previous Long Nights. On the 20th anniversary of Berlin's twinning with Paris, two series of photos by Marosch M. Schröder "Berlin-Snaps - Paris-Voyages" will be on display in the 'Rote Rathaus'. Birthday Party At the end of the Long Night, all visitors and participants are cordially invited to the Long Night Birthday Party in the Podewils Palace. The Beatproviders will be putting on a French-German musical soirée. Beforehand, the outstanding winning short films of the Afri Young Film Awards will be shown, and the best up-and-coming film director will be honoured with the Black Palm 2007. The Klax-Gallery of children's art will present an enormous congratulatory collage, which will be created in the gallery in the course of the Long Night. Shuttle-Bus The shuttle-bus routes have been organised so as to be more visitor-friendly, clearer, and with shorter waiting times. The four museum areas, around the Brandenburg Gate, the Museum Island, Potsdamer Platz, and Charlottenburg Castle, will be linked directly from one to the other. The museums that are further away will be linked with buses going back and forth (instead of the previous ring-routes). Indeed most of the museums are easily accessible by public transport. Experience the atmosphere of a bygone decade in the historic 1926 train between the Olympia-Stadium and Potsdamer Platz. There will be professional child care available in an Extra-tent in front of the Red Town Hall, where up to 10 children can be looked after at a time. It is not necessary to register beforehand (the price is €5 all-inclusive). Apropos: children can even stay over night in the MACHmit! museum. Advance booking and info about the programme The complete programme will be available from mid-July at www.lange-nacht-der-museen.de. The website also allows you to put together an individual tour route. The combined ticket and the free programme for the 21st Long Night of Museums will be available from 1st August 2007 in all participating museums, and theatre ticket offices, in the Berliner Zeitung's customer centre, and the BERLIN info-stores at the Kranzler Eck (Kurfürstendamm), at the Brandenburg Gate and the main station, and also at the Podewils Palace in Berlin-Mitte, Klosterstr. 68 (daily between 12pm and 7pm). Tickets can be booked online from 23rd July 2007 at www.lange-nacht-der-museen.de and www.museumsportal-berlin.de Combi-tickets If booked in advance: € 12 / € 8 reduced On the day itself: € 15 / € 10 reduced The combi-tickets entitle the holder to visit all events during the Long Night, to use the shuttle-bus routes, and to travel to and from the event with BVG and the S-Bahn in the Berlin areas ABC (from 3pm to 5am). The ticket offices will open at 4pm on 25th August 2007 in front of the 'Rote Rathaus' (Berlin's town hall). Further information Kulturprojekte Berlin ltd, Klosterstr. 68, 10179 Berlin MuseumsInformation Berlin +49 (0)30-247 49 888 Mon-Fri 9am-4pm, Sun and public holidays 9am-1pm, on the Long Night 25/08/2007: 9am-11pm Press relations Gabriele Miketta, Tel. +49 (0)30-24749732, pr@kulturprojekte-berlin.de Thanks to afri and daz-Services GmbH for their kind support. Presented by Berliner Zeitung, Radio Eins, rbb Fernsehen and zitty |
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