MEK 20th Anniversary! Neighbourhood Event and Free Admission on 12 May 2019

26.04.2019
Museum Europäischer Kulturen

To celebrate its 20th anniversary and the Europawoche (Europe Week) that takes place each year in May, the MEK (Museum of European Cultures) is putting on a free neighbourhood event in the museum garden in Berlin-Dahlem on Sunday, 12 May 2019. The MEK invites visitors to an extensive special events programme for the entire family focusing on its special and permanent exhibitions. Admission to the museum is free for all visitors during the neighbourhood event.

Programme from 2–6 pm

Under the motto “Living Traditions”, visitors can participate in guided tours and workshops, fortify themselves in the garden with coffee and cake from the eßkultur cafe, and socialize with other guests. A concert with birthday serenades concludes the event.

Visit MEK Exhibitions

In addition, visitors can discover various European lifestyles in the MEK exhibitions currently on display. The special exhibition Wedding Dreams shows how closely our expectations about the “perfect day” are shaped by traditions, media images, social experiences and political realities. In the special exhibition 100% Wool, the MEK explores the cultural history of wool production and its processing.

The collection presentation Cultural Contacts. Living in Europe shows a cross-section from the MEK’s diverse collections in 700 m2 of exhibition space. Just in time for the neighbourhood event, the permanent exhibition has been enlarged with selective interventions entitled Die Dinge des Lebens (The Things of Life): In a special project, Berliners considered the objects in the MEK collection. Now, they tell their very own stories about these objects, which with the help of photos and texts can be viewed and experienced in the exhibition.

History of the MEK

Twenty years ago, the MEK was founded on 24 June 1999. The European collection of the Museum für Völkerkunde, today the Ethnologisches Museum, merged with the Museum of (German) Folklore from East and West Berlin to form the Museum Europäischer Kulturen. The establishment of a new museum also brought about a new focus on modern, cultural-anthropological, and comparative work within European collections and research.