The Berlin Senate’s radical cost-cutting plans mean the end of a pioneering and popular cultural programme: After three and a half years of MUSEUM SUNDAY, it’s over. Next Sunday, 1 December 2024, the admission-free MUSEUM SUNDAY will take place for the last time as a joint project of more than 80 Berlin museums.
Image above: © Stephanie Schneider, www.artatberlin.com.
With more than 2.2 million visits and 5,000 events, Museum Sunday has become an integral part of Berlin’s cultural calendar. The concept is as simple as it is ingenious: on the first Sunday of every month, all Berliners can visit almost all of Berlin’s museums for free.
The promotion and financial support of Museum Sunday by the state of Berlin for the state-funded institutions and for Kulturprojekte Berlin GmbH, which was responsible for the overall communication and organization of the project, is no longer planned due to the cuts in the cultural budget. The state museums also no longer have any further funding available for their institutions. The joint pioneering project of more than 80 Berlin museums for cultural participation and the lowering of entry barriers has thus come to an end. All efforts to continue with a reduced museum Sunday (e.g. once every two months or once a quarter) as part of the budget consolidation were unfortunately unsuccessful. The Berlin government coalition has decided against a continuation.
Large and small museums, publicly funded and private, art, history, nature and technology – the museums attracted visitors to their exhibitions a total of 42 times with special accompanying programs, guided tours and events. Most recently, more than 70,000 people regularly took advantage of the offer. Compared to the previous year, Museum Sunday attracted significantly more visitors each month and achieved an overall increase in the number of visitors of 35 percent. Around two and a half times as many people regularly visited the museums than on regular Sundays.
With Museum Sunday, the participating museums jointly pursued the goal of breaking down access barriers in the long term and enabling as many citizens as possible to participate in culture – especially those who were previously non-visitors.
The results of a visitor survey conducted in October and November in 24 participating museums with more than 1,000 visitors show impressively that the goal of inspiring non-visitors to visit the museum was achieved:
63% of respondents went to the museum because of Museum Sunday and would not otherwise have been in the museum on that day
73% of respondents are Berliners → Target group reached
32% of respondents are non-native German speakers → Target group reached
43% of respondents are younger than 35 → Target group reached
39% of respondents visited a museum Sunday for the first time on 6.10. or 3.11. (still new visitors after more than 3 years)
52% of respondents were visiting the museum of their survey for the first time → Target group of non-visitors reached
48% of respondents became aware of Museum Sunday through targeted communication measures and 81% of respondents are aware of Museum Sunday Berlin → successful communication campaign
98% of respondents think Museum Sunday is important for the city of Berlin!
WHEN?
The last admission-free Museum Sunday will take place as part of an action day on December 1, 2024.
WHERE?
All information on the participating museums and the program can be found on the website www.museumssonntag.berlin in a clear, filterable and accessible format.
