The museums also have to save in the energy crisis. The current bad news from Nuremberg, where the city is considering closing two museums, shows what far-reaching decisions this could result in. The news from the municipal Lenbachhaus in Munich seems like a ray of light on the horizon: Because from November onwards there will be free entry on every first Thursday of the month from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., as director Matthias Mühling recently announced. “Free & Easy” is the motto for the zero-euro ticket in the Lenbachhaus.
This was made possible by the Ingrid Werndl-Laue Foundation, the Herbert Schuchardt Foundation and the Friends of the Lenbachhaus. The latter has been supporting the Museum am Königsplatz since 1993. The two foundations, along with several other foundations, have been supporting the Lenbachhaus for years. The free Thursday evening opening is tentatively scheduled for three years to see how it goes. If things go as they do at the Villa Stuck Museum, which is also municipal, then this Thursday evening with free admission will certainly be extended.
“Friday Late” has been held at Villa Stuck for ten years now. It is valid on the first Friday evening of every month from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Here you can visit all exhibitions and events that fall on this date with free admission. The museum finances the free evening opening from its own resources. The goal from the start was to attract younger visitors. And for a long time now, and more and more in these times, the social aspect has also come to the fore at Villa Stuck: “Friday Late” should also enable people with lower incomes to visit the museum, as director Michael Buhrs emphasizes.
This aspect also plays a major role for Andrea Lissoni, artistic director of Haus der Kunst. For five years and thus even before his term of office, there has been a free evening opening from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. on the first Thursday of every month. By the way, she doesn’t have a special title. Here, too, the free admission is financed from our own funds. But Lissoni would like to find a sponsor for the free evening tickets in the exhibition hall at the English Garden, which is notoriously under financial pressure.
Visitors to the Pinakothek der Moderne in the Kunstareal were also once able to look forward to a free day of admission. Allianz Insurance financed the so-called “Blue Thursday” for several years. It doesn’t exist anymore, but the state museums in Munich have the 1-Euro-Sunday. The Kunsthalle grants a 50 percent discount on all admission prices every Tuesday and admission is always free to numerous smaller exhibition institutions.