Ideas for celebrating International Museum Day

Art museums around Barcelona are celebrating this year's International Museum Day with open screens instead of open doors this year, welcoming us in to their interiors via online tours, interviews, competitions and games. The Born Cultural and Memorial Centre offers a game ('La finestra indiscreta', in Catalan) that's an adventure set in Barcelona in 1700, available via Twitter starting on Saturday the 16th. The Music Museum, starting on Tuesday the 19th, offers a virtual tour (text in Catalan) where you can discover their collection of instruments. Barcelona's Design Museum features their exhibition 'Dressing the Body', among others, as well as a game based on clues (texts in Catalan and Spanish) in order to get to know the museums collections. It's also worth checking out the Ethnological Museum's tour with Adrià Pujol (Monday the 18th at noon) via Facebook Live, and the videos where the staff of the Frederic Marés Museum present their favourite pieces from the collection (#joemquedoamb).

You can also practise your listening skills with Valentin Roma, artistic director of La Virreina, who offers different reflections on new museum settings (in Spanish); and the artist Pere Llobera, with a visit with commentary (in Catalan) to the exhibition he has curated in La Capella. The always impressive centre for contemporary art Fabra i Coats presents previously unseen videos on the setting up of the exhibition 'The Undiscovered Infinite Library' (texts available in English).

The staff at the Picasso Museum rediscover the secrets of the works in its collection, paintings that were hidden because they suggested the idea of equality, and you can follow along via their social media (Facebook, Instagram and Twitter). To enjoy it with the whole family, the museum once again offers a competition that it used when participating in the at-home Museum Quiz.

The Joan Miró Foundation accepts the challenge of Museum Week, and every day of the week will share different content via their social networks (the hero is embodied in the artist's 'Aidez l'Espagne' piece). The museum also offers different resources for you to get up close to Miró's work, like readings (in Catalan) selected by staff members – and read from the library – or their Play Miró series of videos (in Catalan where language is used).

Throughout the day on Monday the 18th, Barcelona's Museum of Contemporary Art, the MACBA, streams the first chapter of 'Singularity', the installation that Albert Serra presented in the Pavilion of the Venice Biennale in 2015. The work is one of the latest acquisitions by the MACBA Collection and part of the series 'Open Screen. Videos from the MACBA Collection'. It'll be running on the museum's website for 24 hours. Keeping in line with the reflection of museums as accessible spaces, a fragment of the work 'Deaf Ears', by Antoni Abad, will also be premiered. Composed of three simultaneous video projections, the piece shows deaf people communicating in sign language.

The National Museum of Art of Catalonia (MNAC) invites you to revisit the Romanesque room dedicated to Sant Climent de Taüll, a virtual guided tour by the museum's educators (visit at 7.15pm via YouTube Live). They also suggest delving in to one of the emblematic pieces of the modern art collection, the painting of 'The Battle of Tetuán' by Fortuny (check the website and YouTube channel for more information on where to see the videos).

You can visit Casa Milà (aka La Pedrera) from home to celebrate International Museum Day, and you'll be accompanied by curator and art historian Silvia Vilarroya, through Instgram Live. The days leading up to the Instagram Live event (which is on Monday the 18th at noon), you can choose between visiting the apartment or the attic, where you'll find the space dedicated to the work of the building's famous architect, Antoni Gaudí.

One of the iconic modernista works in Barcelona, the former hospital that is now a stop on many sightseeing routes, throws its hat into the ring to celebrate Museum Day with a virtual guided tour of the space, available on YouTube. You can head in from Sunday the 17th at noon.

The centres that form part of the network of Catalan musuems join in and open windows to celebrate Museum Day. From May 16 to 18 they'll offer virtual guided tours, digital games, and other resources you can discover via their respective websites. 

The MACBA and the Joan Miró Foundation are a couple of the spaces that are participating in Museum Week, a cultural event on social media that aims to bring together galleries, libraries, museums and archives in the name of culture, including in times where it seems nearly impossible, such as the one we find ourselves in now. The theme for this year's edition is 'Togetherness', and content is inspired by the themes you'll find in the hashtags #heroes, #culturaencuarentena, #juntos, #momentosmuseo, #clima, #tecnología, #sueños.

The International Council of Museums (ICOM) offers an interactive map with the activities that are taking place around the world to celebrate International Museum Day.