On Saturday 19 May from 5pm until midnight the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts at the University of East Anglia will be transformed into a night-time playground of music, performance, walkabouts, crafts, talks and much more for the national Museums at Night celebrations. The event is free and visitors are invited to come in their nightgear to add to the fun! There will be entertainment and activities taking place all around the Centre, and the event will offer something for all ages. Admission is free.

Museums at Night is the annual after-hours celebration of arts, culture and heritage when hundreds of museums, galleries, libraries, archives and heritage sites nationwide open their doors for special evening events. This is the fourth year that Norwich has taken part in the celebrations and this year’s events promise to be the most exciting yet.

“We’re delighted to be taking part in Museums at Night again this year, with the help of the Centre’s Young Associates. It’s a fantastic opportunity to explore the Centre after dark, respond to our collections and exhibitions with writers or collaborate with an artist to create a giant work of art.” – Nell Croose-Myhill, education assistant, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts

The fun-packed evening starts in the Conservatory at 5pm, with a chance for visitors to dress up their dressing gowns, sparkle their slippers or pimp their pyjamas from our box of scrap materials. They can even make a Nightmare Nightwear costume and join in with the Pyjama Parade at 9pm, led by the incredible Paul Preston Mills. Arty Annie will be creating an art blanket and guests can join in by decorating a blanket square, or knitting a piece.

There will be short performances by Nunah Theatre at 5.30pm, 7pm and 8pm plus random acts of physical theatre throughout the evening. UEA’s Minotaur Theatre Company will be performing improvised pieces and there will be music from Iceni 5 and Hannah Butcher. Visitors are invited to bring along an old toothbrush (or a new one) to show to the Centre’s resident expert and add to the collection of prime specimens in the special Toothbrush Museum!

Throughout the evening there will be opportunities to explore the Centre in new ways, with guided tours of the permanent collections or even a blindfold tour with one of the Centre’s Young Associates. Sainsbury Centre enthusiasts will be on hand to talk about objects in the collections and visitors are welcome to wander and enjoy the wonderful building at their own pace. In the studio from 5.30pm, experts from the University of East Anglia and Norwich University College of the Arts will give a series of short Pillow Talks on the subject of night.

In the Living Area from 6pm to 10pm there will be a chance to chill out with stories of the night. Story camps will be springing up in unexpected corners, with cushions and sleeping bags in tucked away places in the Gallery. There will be bedtime stories and lullabies from City College Norwich performing arts students, East Anglian folk-tales and other stories with Suzanne the Storyweaver and stories from the Pacific Rim with Kelly Kanayama. The East Anglian Writers will be inviting visitors to Write the Night, with creative writing sessions based on the Centre’s collections (places can be booked at reception on arrival), while creative writing tutors Patricia Mullin and Caroline Gilfillan will run poetry, storytelling and flash fiction workshops.

In the Modern Life Café from 8pm to midnight, the Sainsbury Centre Young Associates will present Night-life, a programme of music, film and performance including art activities and blindfold art tours. The party will run from 10pm to midnight, with DJ sets from Iceni 5 and Tropico and the Modern Life Café open serving drinks and snacks to keep visitors going until late!

For more information about the event visit www.scva.ac.uk, and for details of all Norwich events look out for the Norwich Museums at Night brochure at Norwich TIC, participating venues and leaflet racks or visit www.heritagecity.org/museumsatnight.