Long Night of Museums 2026
- The file
- The practical details Claire checked before this went into the index.
- When
- 3 October 2026
- Where
- Multiple venues across Vienna (130+ museums and galleries)
- Price
- €19 standard ticket; €16 reduced; children under 12 free
- Indoor
- Cultural
- October 3
- English-friendly
- All districts
The ORF Long Night of Museums is one of Vienna's few genuinely civic events — not a festival with a theme, not a market, but simply the city's museums agreeing to stay open late and put on something special. Over 130 venues participate, from the Kunsthistorisches Museum and Leopold to smaller collections most people pass without noticing.
The single €19 ticket covers most of them (children under 12 are free). You could spend the night rushing between the heavyweights — the National Library's baroque Prunksaal, the Leopold's Egon Schiele, the MAK's new Vienna 1900 permanent installation. Or you could take the opposite approach: start with the smaller, quieter venues early in the evening when crowds are still thin, then move toward the major institutions as the night deepens.
What to Expect
Most museums add special programs beyond their regular exhibitions. The MAK runs short 30-minute guided tours in German every hour, plus a family workshop where you can make patterned moths and "night flyers" between 6 and 9 PM. The Kunsthistorisches Museum, National Library, and Leopold all offer English-language tours. You might find restoration work on display, hands-on workshops, performances, even VR installations — it varies by venue and year.
The atmosphere is unlike a normal museum visit. Thousands of people move through the streets between venues, many carrying small bags or bottles, the city feels permeable. You're not there to spend hours with one collection; you're there to move through the city and sample what's available.
Practical Notes
The ticket is valid from 6 PM to midnight and also functions as a public transport pass from 5:30 PM to 12:30 AM — useful if you're traveling between distant venues. You can buy tickets on the day at Maria-Theresien-Platz (between the Naturhistorisches and Kunsthistorisches museums) or at any participating venue. With 150,000 people typically participating, popular institutions develop queues; the conventional advice is to start with smaller museums and save the major ones for later when crowds thin out.
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- When
- 1 October 2026 – 3 October 2026
- Where
- 8th · Josefstadt
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Read the note →Miao Ying: Come, Sit, Stay — Belvedere 21, July 10–Oct 4
- When
- 10 July 2026 – 4 October 2026
- Where
- 3rd · Landstraße
Miao Ying is a Chinese artist working at the intersection of internet culture, artificial intelligence, and artistic authorship. Her exhibition Come, Sit, Stay opens at Belvedere 21 on July 10 and runs until October 4. The show doesn't argue against AI — it investigates what survives when the tool becomes indistinguishable from the maker. What does it mean to make art when machines can generate images, texts, and sounds on demand, and the gesture is no longer legible as human intent? The title — the commands you give a dog — carries the weight. Belvedere 21, in the 3rd, has become one of Vienna's most consistently interesting venues for international contemporary art since its reopening. This is Miao Ying's first major Austrian solo.
Read the note →Albertina 250 Jahre — "Sammeln für die Zukunft", June 19–Oct 11
- When
- 19 June 2026 – 11 October 2026
- Where
- 1st · Innere Stadt
The Albertina marks 250 years in 2026 with an anniversary exhibition that reframes the collection's founding story. Archduchess Marie Christine, co-founder alongside Duke Albert of Saxony-Teschen, endowed the collection with both wealth and artistic direction — a role that history has largely credited to her husband alone. The exhibition *Sammeln für die Zukunft* (Collecting for the Future) runs June 19–October 11 and spans the museum's 1.2 million objects: from Dürer's Hare to Schiele's expressive drawings, tracing how a private collection became one of the world's most important graphic art institutions. The angle is not "visit the Albertina" but "the Albertina's anniversary show is an argument about who gets credit for founding one of the world's great drawing collections." Marie Christine's role as both patron and artist — she was active as a painter herself — shaped the collection's scope in ways that deserve to be named. The museum is in the 1st district, Albertinapl. 1. Standard admission applies. The **Open Door event** on July 4–5 (the founding anniversary weekend) offers free access — a good entry point if you've been meaning to look.
Read the note →