International Museum Day celebrations move to Iao Hon

The International Museum Day, celebrated officially worldwide on May 18, will host a carnival event in Macau to be held on May 29 at the Iao Hon Market Park, the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) said in a press conference yesterday afternoon.

Titled “Macao International Museum Day Carnival 2022,” the event will feature several activities and games with the participation of a total of 20 local museums co-organizing the activity.

At the press conference held yesterday, the head of the Department of Exhibitions and Museums of the Cultural Affairs Bureau, Sam Hou In, justified the choice of the Iao Hon area for the development of such an event, given the fact that the area has a lot of historical shops being the stage of “many great memories” from the past.

This year, and following the theme internationally established for International Museum Day, the event will feature the topic of the “Power of Museums,” with each museum presenting a range of activities at the carnival event, but also some events over the two weeks starting on mid-
May and until the end of the month, with each one of them presenting special activities and benefits to visitors, such as free admission to the museums on particular days.

For this year’s event, the IC is said to expect an attendance of around 1,200 people to the carnival, which has a total budget of 560,000 patacas.

The same IC official also noted that the purpose of the wide range of events surrounding the Museum Day is to “increase the relationship between the community and the museum,” making the museum venues preferential spaces for learning and quality entertainment for families.

WeChat games and 

lucky draws

Although officials said that the purpose was to establish a wide range of activities to allow for different experiences, the various presentations from the responsible people for several of the museums involved have highlighted the online gaming activities to be done via the mobile application WeChat. Through these online means, according to the organizers, families can complete tasks and learn about different topics, earning prizes and gifts.

A special lucky draw for the attendants of the carnival has also been prepared to take place on May 29, organizers noted.

There will be other games, of the in-person kind, including the “Game of Air Cannon” to take place at the Esplanade of the Maritime Museum on the weekend of May 14 and 15 as well as on Wednesday, May 18.

Virtual Reality (VR) is the proposal of the Macao Science Center that presents to visitors the “VR Experiences of Bugs,” where visitors can experience – intuitively and through virtual reality – the morphology and life of bugs.

The International Museum Day was designated by the International Council of Museums and started to be celebrated on May 18, 1977. It aims to draw attention to museums and well as promoting the development of cultural undertakings.