European culture at your fingertips

Last updated on Thursday, 01/10/2020

Europe: land of interculturality, diversified culinary traditions and, of course, a strong cultural heritage. But how can you experience it in an accessible and fruitful way? Here are some options.

Europe’s cultural collections online

With Europeana, you can access not only paintings and museum pieces but also millions of books and archival records that have been digitised throughout Europe. 

Europeana was launched in 2008 and it works as a multilingual digital library, museum and archive. It gives you quick and easy access to over 23 million objects from European libraries, museums, archives, galleries, and audiovisual collections coming from 33 countries.

A great place for movies is the European Film Gateway portal. It provides a single access point to films, images and texts from selected collections of 38 film archives across Europe.

Cineuropa is also interesting for film lovers. The first European portal dedicated to cinema and culture worldwide is available in four languages and it will keep you informed and updated on the whole European cinema landscape. 

Visiting a proper museum

If you actually prefer real museums you can take advantage of the European Night of Museums, a special evening where the visits are free of charge. Every year in May, more than 4,000 museums in 40 countries open their doors all night for free or with special passes.

Can’t wait for the European Night of Museums and want to go to a museum right now? You may be eligible for one of the many discounts available for young people across Europe.

If you are a student, you can usually buy tickets at a lower price by showing either your student card or an internationally recognised one like the International Student Identity Card (ISIC). Even if you are no longer studying, you can still use the European Youth Card (EYCA) for some discounts.

Keep also an eye directly on the museum’s websites, in many cases, once a month, the entrance is free.

Time for festivals

A less conventional approach is deciding to meet European culture through various festivals: from music to theatre, from literature to dance. Plan your next holidays according to the various events and use FestivalFinder to help you out. Thanks to this tool, supported by the European Union, you’ll be able to select the location, the period of time and the type of festival you like.

When specifically interested in the sound of European musicians, look for concerts on Liveurope, a membership organisation which brings together international concert venues across Europe. 

Fan of culturally bubbling cities? Check out the programmes and visit the European Capitals of Culture of the year, a unique way to explore cities that you may have seen before from a cultural angle.
 

Bottom line is, there are virtually no barriers to keep you from accessing culture wherever you are, whenever you want and in an affordable way.