Cultural Landscapes and International Museum Day

Today is International Museum Day, but more than free entries on your favourite museum, what is the main focus about this date in which 35.000 Museums are involved in around 145 countries?

Since its creation in 1977, every year the ICOM (International Council of Museums) highlights a theme that is at the heart of the international museum community’s preoccupations. This year the theme is Cultural Landscapes, which is also the theme of the General Conference of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), to be held in Milan, Italy from 3 to 9 July 2016. This theme implies that museums have a certain responsibility towards the landscapes where they are located, to which they are able to bring their own specific knowledge and skills. The main mission of museums is to oversee the safekeeping and protection of the heritage that lies both within and beyond their walls.

In the Siena Charter, the cultural landscape is proposed as “the country where we live, which surrounds us with the images and symbols that identify and characterize it.” According to this vision, the landscape is considered as the context – geographic, historical, economic, social and cultural – in which museums exist and operate. 

Lets remember the definition of museums provided by ICOM, :

A museum is a non-profit, permanent institution in the service of society and its development, open to the public, which acquires, conserves, researches, communicates and exhibits the tangible and intangible heritage of humanity and its environment for the purposes of education, study and enjoyment. 

The objective of International Museum Day is to raise awareness of the fact that Museums are an important means of cultural exchange, enrichment of cultures and development of mutual understanding, cooperation and peace among people.

What best way to celebrate it than visit your nearest museum? Discover a selection of the activities organised for International Museum Day here.

Sources: ICOM,