“Museums and cultural tourism” is the subject of the celebrations of the International museum day for 2009, which take place every year on May 18. This date was established as the museums’ day back in 1977 by the International Council of Museums (ICOM) in order to emphasize on the role museums have in the contemporary society.

Every year on this day museums all over the world can be entered for free, and many of them also stay open on a previously determined date during the night, for the so called Museums Night.

The topic chosen for this year, “Museums and cultural tourism”, aims to attract interest towards the interactive and harmonic relationship that needs to be created between museums and tourism, in order to assist preserving the natural and cultural heritage.

In connection to the holiday, Greece has decided to honor The National Museum of Contemporary Art, which was opened in 2000. Also there, the performance “It’s a woman’s world” by “ART” dancing theatre will take place. The idea of the show is to reveal different moments of the contemporary woman’s life and activities and the relationship between the two genders. The performance was inspired by the photo-exhibition by Shirin Neshat in the same museum, and revolves around the presence or absence of a man in a woman’s life and in what way does this form her identity as a part of the world.

Until May 25 different exhibitions, educational programs for primary- and high-school students, as well as different performances are scheduled to take place all over Greece in archeological sites, museums and couple of foundations.

The party in the honor of the Museums day will occur on Monday in the building of the Athens conservatory, and today all museums can be entered for free.