In the year that celebrates the role of museums as cultural focal points, the Gulbenkian Museum commemorates International Museum Day with programming that begins with the inauguration of Noites Modernas (Modern Nights) on 17 May and extends throughout the 18^th, with proposals for all tastes.

In this first edition of Noites Modernas the doors of the Modern Collection of the Gulbenkian Museum stay open until later for a diversified and festive program. Music, performances, new circus, conversations and debates, poetry and dance – there is a whole host of activities that shall turn this space into a land of discovery and diversity as well as of reflection and intervention.

On the 18^th, the festive program starts at 10am with debates for both the young and old, visits, circus, dances and board games. As afternoon ends, at 6.30pm, there is the presentation of a project by the Indian artist Manon de Boer in the Multipurpose Room, which interweaves the exhibition program, educational intervention and the workshop format. Taking as its core theme the informal processes of learning in the artistic fields of music and dance, this project registers the creative processes of a group of Portuguese aged between 16 and 20 who improvise through dance and movement. This represents the second part of a trilogy that began in the United Kingdom in 2017 with young music students, which is due to go on exhibition at the Foundation in 2020.