About us
The Late Shows is an inspiring, after dark programme of events and exhibitions centering on the cultural venues in NewcastleGateshead that are usually closed in the evening. The Late Shows began in 2007 and now, in its fifth year, has almost doubled in size since its beginning.
Museums, galleries and visitor attractions stay up late to encourage people to do something cultural with their evening – in celebration of the international event ‘Museums at Night’.
In the first year, 14 venues took part, rising to 20 in 2008. In 2009 the event had 29 venues in total and added an extra night to the line up and iin 2010 there were 37 venues involved. The Late Shows 2011 was the biggest and most successful yet - a record 46 venues took part with 24,000 visits across the weekend.
The Late Shows' main objective is to encourage people to visit a museum or gallery that they may not have visited before. In particularly, our aim is to attract a younger audience and share loyal audiences between venues.
Venues involved in the evening are asked to programme an event or activity that would be different to their normal offering and over the years we’ve seen everything from interactive art, workshops and demonstrations, exhibition previews, live music and DJs and artist talks.
The Late Shows 2012 will take place on Friday 18 and Saturday 19 May 2012.
For more information on what's happening across the Country on Museums at Night visit www.museumsatnight.org.uk
The international picture
The UK ‘Museums at Night’ is funded by the Museums Libraries and Archives Council and links up with the European wide campaign La Nuit de Musées that takes place on Saturday 19 May 2012. La Nuit de Musées actually began in 2001 and was designed primarily to attract visitors to their local museums who perhaps had not visited for a long time. The main purpose was to attract a younger visitor who would find it easier or more interesting to visit a museum or gallery in the evening.
