Summer in the City? At the Museum, After Dark: a Photo Contest

August in Florence is museum time, and the galleries fill with a different kind of light. The GAMB — the Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze and the Musei del Bargello — throws open its doors in the evening and issues an invitation: don’t just look, tell the story.

That’s how Notturno al Museo (“Nighttime at the Museum”) was born: a photo contest for anyone visiting the Galleria dell’Accademia and the Museo delle Cappelle Medicee during the late openings in August. Two evenings, two chances to see the museum with fresh eyes: Tuesday, August 4, with the Galleria dell’Accademia open until 11 p.m. and the Cappelle Medicee open late, and Monday, August 10, for the Notte di San Lorenzo at the Cappelle Medicee, from 7:15 to 11 p.m.

At night, the museum sheds its skin. Shadows stretch out, the details of the works surface in unexpected ways, visitors move more slowly, almost on tiptoe. It’s in this suspended atmosphere that the GAMB asks the public to freeze a single moment: a gesture, a reflection, a feeling. You don’t need professional gear — just the right eye and the urge to share what you feel.

How to take part

The formula is within everyone’s reach:

• Visit the museum during one of August’s evening openings;
• Take a photograph that captures your experience — a detail, an atmosphere, a feeling;
• Send your shot by August 31 to ga-afi-mn-bar.comunicazione@cultura.gov.it, including your first and last name and the museum where the photo was taken.

An in-house GAMB jury will select the seven best photographs, judging quality, originality, and their ability to convey the mood of the evening openings. The chosen shots will be featured on the museum’s social channels, with a credit to the photographer.

A small gesture — raising your phone, taking the shot — that becomes a way to share with others what you saw and felt. Because at night, the museum tells its story like this too: through the eyes of the people passing through it.

Photos: GAMB – Galleria dell’Accademia di Firenze e Musei del Bargello