Many cultural institutions across Slovenia commemorate the anniversary of the birth of the poet France Prešeren, who was born on 3 December 1800, by opening their doors wide and welcoming visitors to free cultural and artistic events.
The Ministry of Culture launched the Open Doors Day of Slovenian Culture, also known as This Merry Day of Culture, in 2000, the Year of Prešeren. Since then, cultural institutions have offered a varied free programme to visitors every year on this day.
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The wide range of cultural and artistic events is suitable for all age groups. Photo: Andrej Tarfila/www.slovenia.info
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Brežice Knight's hall. Photo: Jaka Ceglar, Združenje zgodovinskih mest Slovenije/www.slovenia.info
The programme of events includes theatre and dance performances, concerts, film screenings, lectures, workshops, guided tours and much more.
The events, along with their detailed descriptions, are presented on a special website of the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia, and can be classified by region, age group, genre and other specific features. The wide range of cultural and artistic events is suitable for all age groups, including organised groups from educational institutions.
This year, some events will also take place on 2 December.
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The Gewerkenegg castle hosts the Idrija Municipal Museum exhibitions. Photo: Miha Skrt, Združenje zgodovinskih mest Slovenije/www.slovenia.info
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Dolenjska museum in Novo mesto. Photo: Jošt Gantar/www.slovenia.info
Culture in numbers
In 2022, 67 cultural events were staged on average per day in Slovenia.
Cultural centres, theatres and music institutions held 24,347 events last year, 49% of which were either self- or co-produced, while the remainder were touring productions.
These events attracted a total of 3.6 million visitors, of which 78.5% came to cultural centres, 18.1% to theatres with opera, and only 3.4% to music institutions (at the seats of these institutions), as these mainly tour and perform elsewhere. Each event had an average of 149 visitors.
Some cultural institutions also offer free events to visitors. Of the total number of events, around 28% or 6,743 were free. Most of the free events were organised by cultural centres.
Slovenian cultural institutions organised 187 festivals, which saw 6,262 different events unfold.
Museums, galleries and institutions with museum collections organised 1,005 exhibitions last year, 786 temporary and 219 permanent exhibitions.
In 2022, we recorded 2.2 million visitors to exhibitions.
Nearly 39,000 educational events (workshops, guided tours, interactive programmes, etc.) were attended by 862,000 visitors, 60% of them children and young people.
Source: SURS
Date: 1. December 2023
Time to read: 2 min
