Georgia celebrates National Museum Week, global Museum Day

Georgia will celebrate this year's National Museum Week with a series of exhibitions and educational activities in capital Tbilisi and around the country.

The Georgian National Museum (GNM) will lead the annual celebrations, which this year coincides with International Museum Day.

Established by the International Council of Museums, International Museum Day is celebrated on and around May 18 and this year will be included in Georgia’s Museum Week celebrations.

Activities marking Museum Week will launch on May 17 with an exhibition dedicated to 120 years since the birth of late Georgian painter Ketevan Magalashvili.

The Ivane Javakhishvili Samtske-Javakheti History Museum in southwestern Georgia will host one of four exhibitions within the Museum Week celebrations. Photo from Georgian National Museum.

The display will be hosted by the Dimitri Shevardnadze National Gallery in central Tbilisi and present a retrospective look at the artistic legacy of the painter, who died in 1973.

On May 18 Museum Week will also celebrate the history of the emergence of avant garde art in the early 20th Century.

The display Avant Garde 1900-1937 will illustrate novel directions and techniques brought to classic forms of creativity by changing industrial and technological trends in the past century. Presented at the Shalva Amiranashvili Museum of Fine Arts, the display will exhibit visual artwork from Georgia, Ukraine, Russia, Poland and Italy.

On May 19, visitors are invited to view 6th to 18th Century manuscripts from the Balkans illustrating the rich cultural heritage of the Eastern European region. The exhibition will be held at the Ivane Javakhishvili Samtske-Javakheti History Museum in the city Akhaltsikhe in southwestern Georgia.

Sighnaghi Museum in eastern Georgia's Kakheti region will be one of the venues celebrating Museum Week. Photo from Georgian National Museum.

In another region of the country, Sighnaghi township in Georgia's east will host the Marine Landscape exhibition on May 20, before a program of educational events concludes Museum Week on May 21.

The final occasion, named Night at the Museum, will be held in all venues coming under the umbrella of the GNM across Georgia.

National Museum Week has been held in Georgia since 2009, while International Museum Day has been marked by venues throughout the world since 1977.

Last year more than 35,000 museums in 145 countries celebrated the international date.