Free entry at Iziko museums on International Museum Day

Saturday 18 May will be International Museum Day, and to celebrate knowledge, history and culture, the Iziko Museums of South Africa are opening their doors to the public for one day.

In 1977, the International Council of Museums (ICOM) opted to celebrate museums and cultural exchange once a year on this date. The 11 Iziko museums scattered across Cape Town will invite the public to access them for free (barring the planetarium) as well as host fun activities and tours for all ages.

Image by Mike Coghlan

This year, the theme for International Museum Day is ‘Museums as cultural hubs: the future of tradition’. Officially, International Museum Week runs from Monday 13 May through to the big final day on Saturday. The Iziko Mobile Museum, a ‘museum without walls’ aims to brings these experiences to different communities, and so the mobile museum will be visiting the Multipurpose Centre of Marine Primary in Ocean View, and the school library of Simon’s Town Primary later this week.

On Saturday, all 11 museums will be open from 9am to 4pm, where festivities and activities will commence. Access is free to the public, with the exception of Groot Constantia, and then the Iziko Planetarium and Digital Dome in Queen Victoria Street, which will have a special half-price entry free (R15 for children, R30 for adults).

You can look forward to these free events and activities:

– A guided tour of the Iziko Slave Lodge Museum, from 11am to 12pm (book your spot)

– Interactive session with entomologists, from 9am to 3pm

– Traditional dance performance, from 11am to 12pm

– An all-day pop-up exhibition on edible insects, from 9am to 4pm

– A tour of the Bo-Kaap Museum on Thursday 16 May and Saturday 18 May (book your spot)

– International Museum Day Career Expo at Portlands High School Hall, Mitchells Plain, from 10am to 1pm

Head on over to the Iziko website for more information.

Feature image by Mike Coghlan

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