Traditionally celebrated on May 18 since 1997 to strengthen the ties between museums and society, through various cultural activities, this year the international day will have as its motto "Museums, Education and Research", according to the website of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), promoter of the event worldwide. Based on this theme, the public company Museus e Monumentos de Portugal (MMP) launched the challenge to the 38 national museums and monuments, and to the 169 museum spaces that make up the Portuguese Museum Network to join these commemorations, promoting dozens of activities throughout the country, including several activities dedicated to families. Guided and thematic visits to exhibitions, to the reserves of some museums, theater, dance, circus and music shows, workshops, lectures, among other initiatives, most of them free of charge, for all audiences, make up a general program that currently totals 258 activities, involving more than seven dozen museums and monuments from all over the country, according to a statement from MMP. This year, the International Museum Day coincides with the European Night of Museums, created in 2005, which allows visitors to enjoy these spaces at night, and participate in the multiple activities scheduled, which can be consulted at https://dim.museusemonumentospt.pt/, in permanent update. According to MMP, admission to the 38 museums, monuments and national palaces under its tutelage is free. The program begins, in some spaces, already from Thursday, namely in Braga, where it will be possible to make "A sound journey through musical education", a concert/recital that will associate music with the heritage space, at the Biscainhos Museum, and, in Porto, a "Night visit with lanterns!" is one of the proposals of the Soares dos Reis National Museum. Still in the North, at the Leça do Balio Monastery, headquarters of the Livraria Lello Foundation, the work "Descent from the Cross", by the Portuguese painter Domingos Sequeira (1768-1837), will be exhibited for the first time to the public, which will go to the Soares dos Reis National Museum, for exhibition from June 1st. Gerardo Rodrigues on the piano will mark the International Museum Day and the European Night of Museums at the José Malhoa Museum, in Caldas da Rainha, and at the Conímbriga National Museum there will be a presentation of communications within the scope of master's and doctorate works developed at that museum. In Coimbra, the municipal museum organizes the dramatized guided tour "The key guard goes up to the Almedina Tower", at 11:00 am, aimed at the general public and children over 6 years old, upon prior registration, according to the general program. In the district of Leiria, the Alcobaça Monastery will present a workshop entitled "A journey through time: what is it like to be a monk?", at 10:30 am, to present an important part of the monument - the Scriptorium - where the copyist monks produced codices, medieval books. In Lisbon, the National Museum of Ancient Art will organize, especially for families, a visit-game related to "Portrait of an artist: the art of Domingos Sequeira", while during the European Night of Museums, at 9:30 pm, in the former studio of the painter José Malhoa, at the Casa-Museu Anastácio Gonçalves, there will be "A musical and literary soirée from the beginning of the 20th century", by the Patrimonial Movement for Portuguese Music. Still in the capital, the National Museum of Ethnology will organize guided tours to the "Galleries of the Amazon", between 7:00 pm and 8:00 pm, in whose visitable reserves, the general public has access to the collections relating to Amazonian cultures with more than 1,700 objects that constitute them, representing a total of 37 indigenous peoples. In turn, the Museu Rainha D. Leonor, in Beja, will organize the "Museum in the Street" through workshops, and in Funchal, at the Museu Quinta das Cruzes, an 18th century ball will take place. MMP emphasizes, in the statement, that this year's edition of the International Museum Day highlights its "fundamental role in education and research, emphasizing the importance of museums as dynamic educational institutions that promote learning, discovery and cultural understanding". Annually, more than 40 thousand museums around the world participate in the International Museum Day, according to ICOM, organizing programs that involve, among others, guided tours, book launches, historical re-enactments and conferences. Read Also: Carlos Moedas assumes the Culture portfolio at the Lisbon City Council (Portuguese version)