Another Night at the Museum

The popular ‘Museum Night’ concept extends to the historic sites of the V&A Waterfront this July, with seven museums in the precinct opening their doors free of charge to the general public on Thursday, 14 July.

Visitors on the night can expect a curated programme of activations, performances, food and other experiences designed to guide audiences through historical and culturally significant spaces and exhibitions, and highlight the V&A Waterfront’s museums and cultural assets. Printed guides to the evening’s activities will be freely available at each cultural stop, ensuring that visitors can make the most of the evening’s offerings.

Participating museums include the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa at the Scheryn Pavilion, Chavonnes Battery Museum, Iziko Maritime Centre, the Robben Island Jetty Museum, the Cape Town Diamond Museum, the Golf Hall of Fame, and the Springbok Experience Rugby Museum.

Also part of the inaugural Waterfront Museum Night is the Bring Your Own Beamer exhibition, which comes to the V&A Watershed from as far afield as New York, Istanbul, Tokyo and Amsterdam. The internationally recognised exhibition sees moving image artists in cities around the world bring their work to a central location in their city, providing free exhibition space for those working creatively in moving images and videography.

Visitors will also be able to take in Cape Town’s marine assets during the evening, with a 50% discount on entrance fees to the Two Ocean Aquarium from 5pm onwards. Museums will be open between 5pm and 9pm, with visitors encouraged to start at any museum site, and make use of the printed programmes available at each site to help guide their experience from there.

Museum Night at the V&A Waterfront is an extension of the Museum Night Cape Town project, which in its first edition in 2015 recorded over 13 000 museum visits across 5 central city museums. Museum Night aims to make museums more accessible to the public and to develop a culture of visiting museums amongst locals.

Museum Night is led by Thursdays Projects, the team behind the popular First Thursdays events, where art galleries and cultural attractions in Cape Town and Johannesburg stay open late on the first Thursday of every month