Night in the Museum, Day in the Hotel

Moscow is celebrating this year’s Night in the Museum with a record 356 events at 200 venues  — and keeping the doors open until 6 a.m. The theme is “Live in the Museum” with events designed to let you study, listen, experience, see, create and stroll in some of the city’s best, biggest, smallest and most obscure museums, art galleries, and courtyards.

The hub of the action is in the Museum of Moscow, where there will be non-stop storytelling, performances, silent movies with live music accompaniment, music and more in various parts of the vast inside and outdoor space. Start there, and then perhaps make your way across the river and check out an installation in the vestibule of the New Tretyakov Gallery before strolling through the halls filled with avant-garde art. In the Muzeon park check out a show of young artists before heading over to Gorky Park to don virtual reality headgear and experience the park of the 1930s.

If you are a fan of Russian literature, you’ll be busy all night. Do you adore everything Leo Tolstoy wrote? Then head over to the Museum at 11/8 Prechistenka from noon to 9 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday to explore a vintage market filled with objects the great author himself might have touched. Or go the house museum at 21 Ulitsa Lva Tolstogo where you and your family can have fun with folk art and listen to music by Beethoven, Chopin and Glinka.

The house museums of Alexander Skriabin, Sergei Yesenin, Vladimir Vysotsky, Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Marina Tsvetayeva are all presenting audio plays where you can hear the thoughts, words, and writing of these brilliant authors and composers.

Up for a movie? Then go to the Alexander Solzhenitsyn House of the Russian Abroad, the Mayakovsky Museum, or the Museum of the Avant-Garde. 

Feel like making some art? Stop in the Solyanka Gallery at 1/2 Ulitsa Solyanka, Bldg. 2 where every room of the building — even the offices — will be taken over by artists, who will invite you to join them in the creative activity.

And if nothing of the above appeals, check out the approximately 352 other events open to the public free of charge on Saturday evening and night.

For more information, registration for certain events, addresses, and other contact information, see the Night in the Museum site.

The Day After: Vintage Marketplace

After your artistic night, continue your creative life at the city’s first big vintage market.

Set up by two young women with a passion for vintage fashion, the Vintage Marketplace (VMP) is the first and largest market of its kind in Russia. Gathering together almost 100 of the best vintage shops from around the country and beyond, VPM has everything the vintage-loving Muscovite seeks from Spring/Summer finds to men’s classics and decorative items for your home.

The VPM movement goes beyond clothes and into fashion-related projects; this includes fashion photoshoots, parties, as well as going deeper to shine light on talking points such eco-friendly consumerism and slow fashion (the concept of sustainability and being environmentally responsible) – the event will feature a public talk on these topics.

 VPM takes place across seven reception halls on the second floor of the National Hotel. Admission is free.

Find out more about the event here.