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The program also covers the practical organization, programming, coordination, advertising, special art projects for the annual Night of Museums and Galleries festival. Realized editions: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017. The first Bulgarian event of its kind, the Night of Museums and Galleries festival was first organized in 2005 by the founders of the Sariev Gallery Vesselina and Katrin Sarievi. In 2007, the Sarievs founded the Open Arts Foundation which went on to organize the festival’s subsequent editions. The Night of Museums and Galleries was later renamed to Night/Plovdiv. Like similar events in Western and Central Europe, Night of Museums and Galleries provides opportunities for public encounters with artists, art and culture in non-traditional evening and late night hours. With an annual program of more than 100 events and an audience between 40 000 and 50 000, the festival continues to seek new challenges and to expand its scope. A “culture at large” event, Night of Museums and Galleries works with state, regional, private and non-governmental organizations who vary significantly in their organizational models and level of public recognition. In 2012, the Open Arts Foundation created the Museums Fund, later renamed to the Special Projects Fund, which seeks to support organizations and artists by co-funding their festival projects. Night of Museums and Galleries has worked with some of Bulgaria’s most recognized contemporary artists and curators, as well as with many of the most active international cultural institutions represented in the country. With their help over the years Open Arts Foundation organized, produced or co-produced special artistic projects at Night, some of them: Steve H. Barovsky (USA) with its horror novel “The Seven Hills of Plovdiv”; the project “Creation of Museum of Contemporary Art in Bulgaria“ by Ivan Moudov; the installation Lighthouse by Vadim Fishkin, curator Iara Boubnova; East Art Map by the Slovenian art collective IRWIN, selected by Iara Boubnova; PLOVEDIV – project for public space by Milen Gelishev and Simeon Todorov; festival “City and public spaces” curated by Vera Mlechevska entitled “Rituals of the Habitual“; special jubilee program “The Dark Side of the Night” curated by Art Affairs and Documents Foundation; Curatorial program of Night/Plovdiv, 2015 and many others. In 2017 during the festival Night of Museums and Galleries, Open Arts Foundation celebrated its 10 anniversary withe the special exhibition “10 years Open Arts:HERE EVERYWHERE”, curated by Vladiya Mihaylova.
More information is available on the festival’s website, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Instagram, Youtube profiles.
