Photo by oliviagiovetti

If you’re in Prague on Saturday, June 16, 2007 don’t spend your day museum-hopping. Wait until 7 p.m., when the bulk of the city’s museums and galleries will waive admission as part of Prague’s Museum Night.

In its fourth year (2007), Prague’s Museum Night is part of a European movement to make art open, accessible, and (best of all) free. The only two museums not offering free admission are asking for “symbolic admission”: the Museum of the City of Prague is charging CZK1 (€.04; $.05), while the City Gallery Prague is asking for CZK10 (€.35; $.47) per entrant. If you’re completely strapped for crowns, don’t fret. There are over 15 other museums and galleries to keep you busy.

Transportation between museums will also be free. A handful of other cultural events and exhibitions will complement the evening’s festivities. So if you’ve ever found yourself jonesing for a Cinderella, stroke-of-midnight moment at Prague Castle, June 16 is your chance.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Photo by cassiefornia

If you’re not familiar with the work of Jack B. Yeats, brother of famed poet W.B. Yeats, now is a great time to swing by the National Gallery in Dublin. The Gallery’s impressive collection of oil paintings, watercolors, and drawings by Yeats recently moved from the Dargan Wing to the newly renovated Beit Wing, which was its home from 1999 until its recent move.

The gallery says that the smaller space provides “a more sympathetic scale” in which to showcase its collection of paintings by Yeats, Ireland’s principal 20th century visual artist. We’re no art world copy writers, but we buy it, considering the dreamy, impressionistic tone of Yeats’ work.

Cheapo Bonus: entrance to the National Gallery’s permanent collection is free, as are public tours on Saturdays (3 p.m.) and Sundays (2, 3, and 4 p.m.).

Popularity: 14% [?]

Photo by RichardsonA

Usually a late night in London means a long night out, a club with a cover charge, and kebabs as the sun comes up. Now, the more cultured among us can step out for something other than a sticky dance floor and over-priced mojitos. Okay, so the new Late Nights at London’s cultural venues don’t last until the sun comes up, but National Gallery, The Tate, and other London favorites now have extended weekday hours. Now we can have our culture after work during the week, freeing up coveted weeken hours, which could easily be spent country hopping on Ryanair.

Check out the Lates website for all information on what’s currently on and what’s upcoming.

Popularity: 11% [?]

Photo by komjatha

Planning to be in France in May? Save your museum outings for Saturday night, May 19. Entrance fees will be waived and visitors will be encouraged to linger at exhibitions past midnight. It’s all part of a European initiative called “La Nuit des Musees” aimed at attracting a younger museum-going audience.

This is the initiative’s third year. A total of 940 museums in France have signed on. Details of special programs at participating venues will be available shortly at the Web site. Last year the operation attracted 1.5 million visitors and many of the museums staged plays, readings, and concerts as part of the initiative’s charm offensive.

Other European countries participating in the initiative include Armenia, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Romania, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Photograph by Mr.Y

The Cite de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine opened in Paris this week with an inaugural exhibition called “Avant-Apres” or “Before-After: the awareness of time.” Claiming to be the biggest museum in Europe devoted to architecture, it is housed in a massive 23,000 square meters space in the Palais de Chaillot, in the 16th arrondissement.

Two central halls earmarked for temporary exhibitions opened yesterday. Additional elements are slated to open in September 2007. These include an architecture library with 45,000 books and 450 magazines.

“Before-After,” (admission just €5) runs until September 16. It consists of a long darkened corridor mounted with huge screens showing 150 short films illustrating the theme of time in architecture, with subjects ranging from a beach house on France’s Atlantic coast to the transformation of Tokyo’s Shinjuku district over three decades.

The impact of architecture on public and private spaces is portrayed in a mostly positive light, although there is something undeniably frightening about seeing 30 years of change compressed into a few minutes. You can pull up a chair and settle in for the show. Some of the footage is cut with extracts from classic movies like Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis” and “The Wizard of Oz.”

In a nearby annex there is another exhibition, free of charge, called “Génération Europan.” The series highlights futuristic visions of 21st century urban development as envisioned by prize-winning young European architects.

Palais de Chaillot is located at 1 place du Trocadéro et du 11 Novembre. Metro: Trocadéro or Iena. Hours: Monday through Friday from noon until 8 p.m., Thursday evenings until 10 p.m., and weekends from 11 a.m. until 7 p.m.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Photograph by Elen Farkas

Vienna is subdivided into 23 districts. On Sunday, March 25, 2007 for the first time, Vienna will hold the Tag der Wiener Bezirksmuseen, or the day of district museums. Starting at 10 a.m., all district museums in Vienna will be open to those interested in finding out more about each district’s culture, history, and significant residents.

Aside from exhibitions, there will also be press conferences, seminars, and matinee concerts. In the inner First District, discussions of its famous citizens (Ludwig van Beethoven, the playwright Johann Nestroy, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, among others) are scheduled. In the Eighth District (Josefstadt) a special exhibit, “Hollywood in der Josefstadt” is in planned. Noted Viennese luminaries such as Billy Wilder (who became a popular director in Tinseltown with “Sabrina” and “The Seven Year Itch,”) Oskar Werner, and Fritz Lang will surely be hot topics.

For more information, summary of events and the addresses of the museums, visit the City of Vienna’s Web site or call +43 (0)1 403 6415. Admission is free.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Photograph by Rita Crane

Apparently the French Ministry of Culture caught on that €8 is a lot to pay just to get lost trying to find the Mona Lisa.

For younger visitors, there’s a better way. The Louvre is absolutely free for everyone under 26 years old, every Friday evening. The free hours are from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Who knew the Louvre was the place to be on a Friday night?

This Friday, March 23rd, 2007, there’s the added bonus of free music to compliment your art. Students from the National Conservatory of Music will be playing in front of their favorite pieces of art throughout the museum. Two for the price of none!

Take metro lines 1 or 7 to Palais Royal Musée du Louvre. The station connects to the museum underground.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Photograph by Wayne Zakaria

Berlin will host a huge European Union birthday bash this weekend as it celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome with a mixture of politics and a bonanza of Cheapo entertainment.

While European leaders sign the Berlin Declaration on European Values, museum lovers can attend the “Night of Beauty” on March 24. One €14 ticket gets you into 14 museums and galleries, which will stay open until 2 a.m. and feature special exhibitions and performances.

Those who want to keep going all night can play at more than 30 Berlin bars and clubs, where DJs and musical acts from across Europe will be entertaining partygoers. €12 gets you a ticket into all participating clubs.

On March 25, things get really cheap—free, in fact—with an outdoor concert at the Brandenburg Gate, starting at noon and lasting into the night. Acts include the Blue Man Group and Joe Cocker.

Berlin proved its party-throwing prowess with the World Cup last summer, and we expect nothing less than a wunderbar celebration. Prost!

Popularity: 7% [?]

We got a good injection of artistic inspiration at the Benaki Museum’s Pireos Street Annexe in Athens (Pireos Street 138 at Andronikou Street, tel: +30-210-345-3111). There, one of the current exhibitions is a collection of selected sculptures and paintings by contemporary Greek artist Kostas Paniaras. The exhibition spans Paniaras’s first 50 years of art work. It’s a “non-retrospective” review, with current work and past work juxtaposed side-by-side. This organization jumbles the traditional narrative of an artist’s progression, and makes Paniaras’s work feel truly alive across the decades of his work.

While you can pay €8 for admittance to all of the museum’s fabulous exhibits, you can opt to experience the Paniaras exhibition for only €3. If you have a child under 18 with you, the child attends free and you are admitted for €1.50.

This exhibit only runs through March 18, so hurry! (The museum is open from 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday, 10 a.m. until 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, and closed Monday and Tuesday.)

Popularity: 4% [?]

photograph by Melanie Clatanoff

If you’re in Paris and starved for some English language press, don’t pay €2.20 for a newspaper.

The Museum of Parisian Architecture, located in the Pavillion de l’Arsenal, has a “bar à journaux” where anyone can sit and read the news for free. The International Herald Tribune is there, along with thirteen other daily papers from around the world. There’s even a vending machine for coffee.

The museum is also free, so take a look around! It just reopened this week following a renovation. It has cool models, maps, and drawings of Paris through the ages and bean bag chairs to lounge in. If you don’t know much about Paris this is a great place to get an overview of the city and start planning your visit!

The Pavillion de l’Arsenal is open 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sundays. It’s located at 21 boulevard Morland in the 4th arrondissement. The closest metro is Sully-Morland, line 7, though Bastille is also nearby.

Popularity: 3% [?]