On 18 May 2019, a regular educational campaign “The Night of Museums” was held in the Museum of History of Science and Technology of JINR in the frames of celebrations of the International Museum Day. The holiday was full of children voices and noise. Eight hours of non-stop events; more than 300 participants (guests and citizens of the city) aged 0 – 85.

The theme of the event was proposed by the International Council of Museums; our Museum is one of the members of this Council. It was “Museums as cultural centres: the future of the tradition”. All events held by the Museum were organized with regard to the general theme.

A photo quest “Dubna: a journey to past, present and future” launched the programme of the holiday. Almost 50 teams represented by children, adults, and parents with their children took part in this fascinating game on regional history. As far as the quest had been held before many times, organizers of the game had to puzzle over the search for new interesting objects in the Institute’s part of the city, as well as give tricky task definitions. As a result, they managed to invent outstanding questions that demanded from participants of the photo quest patience, erudition, and quick-wittedness. A memorable walk around the Institute’s part of the city, amazing places, unlocking secrets, new knowledge were prepared for participants of the game. During the quest, they learned a lot of impressing details about places of interest and historic sites of Dubna.

An excursion dedicated to the history and traditions of the Scientific Dubna and its international contacts was held twice. Guests listened about art hobbies and cultural initiatives of JINR physicists (an amateur theatre, the KVN (“Club of the Funny and Inventive People”), concerts of V. Vysotsky and performances of A. Voznesensky, artistic evenings of national groups, and etc.). Visitors learned about famous people who had visited our city and who had left an imprint on it. Organizers also told the visitors about the sport life of Dubna, about water-skiing and chess sports, in particular. Fictional movies filmed and screened in Dubna as well as many other things about the city were also presented to participants.

An intellectual and entertaining game for junior-school children “QuizKids” was held simultaneously with the excursion, the start and the finish of the photo quest. Five teams of inquisitive children fought in the battle of wits, erudition, intuition, and quick-wittedness. The game turned out to be very educational, funny, and gambling. Nobody was left disappointed.

After the children’s quiz, a lecture “Museums at the cross sections of history” was held. A lecturer told visitors about the unique destiny of the most ancient in the world museum established by the Macedonians in Alexandria, the most fascinating and unusual museums. He also touched upon museums’ curious incidents, including large-scale robberies. And of course, he told participants about the fruitful development of museum traditions, worries and hopes of museums’ staff.

“Museum Night” was concluded with an intellectual game “What? Where? When?” in which 5 teams of experienced players took part. The topic of the game corresponded to the time and the place of its holding: “Museum Secrets”.

The Museum of History of Science and Technology of JINR expressed its gratitude to everyone who have participated in the event “The Night of Museums”! We are waiting for you next year!