Groninger Museumnacht 2020 programme

The fourth Groninger Museumnacht – a “limited edition” – will take place on Saturday 12 September 2020. In light of national restrictions around coronavirus, there will be a festive but modified programme of art, music, workshops, dance and tours.

Visiting the museums safely
The museums will be open from 7pm to midnight on Museumnacht. This year, instead of a single unified admission ticket, each museum will sell its own timed-entry tickets. Tickets cost €2.50 and numbers are limited. To ensure safe distancing, museum will admit fewer visitors than normal.

The programme:

Groninger Museum
Head to the Groninger Museum for music, workshops, cocktails, walk-up tours and dance. There’ll be performances by the rapper and singer S10, the Groningen collective X_Yusuf_ Boss, and a solo performance by Cashmyra. You can also visit the exhibitions En toch staat de Martini - 75 Years of Liberation in Groningen, Willem Kolvoort - Posters for Vera and the photography show What Will the Neighbours Say? Registration for activities opens at 7pm outside the museum entrance (ticketholders only).

Storyworld
How about a cartoon of your favourite animal – or a caricature of yourself? Watch the talented Groningen comic artist and illustrator Jan-Willem Spakman draw live on the big screen in the public gallery at Forum Groningen. Take the escalator up to Wonderland for workshops in bookbinding and comic drawing. And at the Smartlab on the sixth floor, read comics and help colour a giant picture of the comic characters Luke and Lucy (aka Suske and Wiske) in Groningen. Finally, visit Storyworld to learn all about comics, animation and games and see the exhibition Luke and Lucy: 75 Years!

GRID Grafisch Museum
The exhibition VlerkWerk. 30 Years of Underground Posters shows off the dynamic comic-style posters of the Groningen artist Vlerk. And various special activities will take inspiration from the pop-up-book show Met opzet. Pop-up boeken uit de collectie Ruurd de Boer and the work of the Dutch modernist artist H.N. Werkman. Print your own card using the Werkman technique, create your own advertising brochure on an antique press, or make a pop-up card. Or head to Forum Groningen to bind your own booklet and draw an adventure story inside at a workshop co-hosted with Storyworld. The Alto Kwartet will play music from a repertoire spanning swing, pop, jazz, rhythm and blues and rock ’n’ roll from 1900 to the present.

University Museum
The audio play Herinneringen van Aletta (“Memories of Aletta”) (in Dutch only), developed exclusively for Groninger Museumnacht, takes you back to the activist Aletta Jacobs’ young years and her first big fight for gender equality. Listen in as she writes to Minister Thorbecke to persuade him to allow her to go to university. You’ll hear stories of items in the collection and walk through the “Dead Zoo” as it comes to life.

Noordelijk Scheepvaartmuseum (Northern Maritime Museum)
Kin ik die nait aargns van? Take a crash course in Groningen Dutch with a seductive theme: the night. Instructor, rapper and host Olaf Vos will teach you key words and phrases for navigating Groningen nightlife. Topics including going out, drinking beer, chatting someone up, and authentic Groningen erotica. The talented young pianist Jesse Wienke will play Bach, Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Chopin. How about a cartoon of your favourite animal – or a caricature of yourself? Cartoonist Jan-Willem Spakman is taking requests! Esmé van den Boom writes prose, poetry and songs. On Museumnacht she'll address an age-old question: what do women want? To answer it, she interviewed dozens of women in Groningen about their desires, fears and dreams for the future. Do you like yoga? How about beer? Usva will hold one of its famous beer yoga sessions. And the night will end with a Korean horror story (in English) told under the creaking attic beams of the medieval Gotische Huis.

For additional programme details and tickets visit groningermuseumnacht.nl.