Colour and light, rhythm and sound, curiosity and knowledge meet 500 years of art and three new exhibitions in a vibrant programme at Nationalmuseum. Discover something new and let yourself be inspired. Whether it’s your first visit or you’re a regular, there’s something for everyone!
Scroll down to explore all the activities at Nationalmuseum during Kulturnatten
Opening hours
Saturday 18 April 2026, 18:00–24:00
Admission
Free
Bags
NOTE: Only small bags and backpacks, max 40 × 20 × 25 cm, are allowed inside the museum. Please leave larger bags at home; storage space is limited.
Shopping
The museum shop is open 21:00–23:45
Stockholm Culture Night.
Kulturnatten’s Art Quiz (in Swedish)
Knowledge, gut feeling, and wild guesses will all be needed in equal measure! Register your team in advance to participate. NB. In Swedish.
When?
18:00–19:30
Where?
Restaurang Nationalmuseum, ground floor
Registration
The registration is open 1–15 April
Registration and more information in Swedish
Jazz in the staircase: Agnes Darelid trio
Take a seat in the grand staircase an listen to modern jazz with dreamy improvisations. Agnes Darelid (trombone), Joel Sahlin (guitar) and Ingrid Schyborger (double bass). Three 30 minute-sets.
When?
Each set lasts ca 30 minutes, starting at 18:00, 19:00 and 20:00.
Where?
At the main staircase, on the middle floor (floor 4)
Agnes Darelid is a trombonist and composer with a strong and distinctive personal expression. In recent years, she has established herself as one of the most exciting voices on the Swedish jazz scene. Her latest album, Rise, has been praised by critics for its dreamlike soundscapes and playful, exploratory improvisations.
Agnes Darelid. Photo: Elvira Glänte.
Live concert with the Ketema Yirga Ethiojazz Quartet
Jazz and improvised Ethiopian sound patterns meet pop from Ethiopia’s golden era featuring Ketema Yirga (saxophone), John Runefelt (keyboard), Markus Isberg (drums) and Israel Abel (bass).
When?
21:00–22:30
Where?
The South Courtyard, ground floor
In Sweden, Ethiopian jazz has gone from being virtually unknown to the general public to captivating an ever-growing audience of music lovers, establishing itself as a beloved musical tradition. Saxophonist Ketema Yirga improvises from Ethiopian sound patterns, blending contemporary and classic jazz with pop songs from Ethiopia’s golden era.
Ketema Yirga.
Sculpture Bar with DJ-duo High Life
Mingle among the sculptures in one of Nationalmuseum’s most beautiful spaces. Restaurant Nationalmuseum provides snacks and drinks, while DJ-duo High Life (Anna Lindström and Sebastian Matz) play afrobeat, South African pop and Ethiopian jazz.
When?
18:00–23:45
Last orders at the bar at 23:30
Where?
The Sculpture Courtyard, ground floor
DJ duo High Life. Photo: Olav Nyhus.
Colour! A new exhibition for children and curious grown-ups
Become a colour explorer! Visit our new exhibition on your own or join a family tour.
When?
18:00–21:00
Admission to the exhibition on the hour or half hour.
Suitable for?
Children aged 6–12 and accompanying curious adults.
Tickets
Free tickets can be collected from 18:00 at the exhibition desk and are valid for a 30-minute visit, starting on the hour or half-hour.
You can choose to explore the exhibition on your own or join a family tour. Maximum of 5 tickets per person and per family tour.
Where?
The Children's Art World, ground floor
Put on a lab coat, slip on a pair of colour goggles, and step through the colour portal. Experience and explore colour in different ways in the exhibition’s vibrant and immersive rooms. Colour! is a sensory and playful exhibition aimed at children accompanying adults.
Children visiting the Colour! exhibition. Photo: Anna Danielsson/Nationalmuseum.
Colour Lab – Discover the shimmering world of watercolours!
Free experimentation with watercolours and tools awaits you at the studios. Drop-in if space allows.
When?
18:00–23:00
Where?
The studios, ground floor
Painting with watercolours in the studio. Photo: Nationalmuseum
Walls come alive! Create light projections
Create with colour and a light projector outside the studios – and experience spatial magic!
When?
18:00–23:00
Where?
In the corridor, outside the studios
Light projection makes the wall come alive! Photo: Nationalmuseum.
hi TG live – Human Intelligence Drawings, by Tobias Gutmann
Share your thoughts live. Tobias Gutmann answers with intuitive ink drawings.
When?
18:00–20:00 and 21:00–23:00
Break 20:00–21:00
Where?
The Old Library, middle floor (floor 4)
hi TG live is a drawing performance by artist Tobias Gutmann. Visitors are invited to share thoughts, feelings, or questions through a simple digital interface. Selected contributions are translated live into original ink drawings on paper, each mark created attentively and intuitively.
The drawings are put up along a cord that runs through the Old Library, a time-based, public, and embodied record of presence and participants also receive a delicate digital trace of their contribution.
Rather than responding with words or simulated empathy, the artist foregrounds human presence, materiality, and decision-making. hi TG live continues the exploration begun in the ongoing hi TG project, where online interactions and studio practice illuminate what remains profoundly human in an increasingly algorithmic world.
Share or ask
Tobias Gutmann. Photo: Jonathan Ospina.
REFLECTION MACHINE – an interactive light installation
Artist Svante Pettersson creates reflection, colour and shadow on the courtyard’s walls. (89)
When?
18:00–24:00
Where?
The South Courtyard, ground floor
In the analogue work REFLECTION MACHINE, light artist Svante Pettersson creates a live installation where reflection, colour, and shadow take hold of the space in a constantly shifting way. An experience for you to step into and inhabit.
For 30 years, Svante Pettersson has worked with light in many different ways – ranging from lighting installations and urban light design to light art, light philosophy, and safety initiatives in vulnerable areas.
His art installations are often based on an interplay between multiple visual elements that together offer viewers joyful experiences and pedagogical “aha” moments. A recurring theme in his practice is the search for unknown dimensions, accompanied by existential reflections, expressed with both seriousness and humour.
Svante Pettersson.
Pop-up viewings: Two voices – one artwork
Join one or several pop up-viewings where a single artwork is presented by two different voices. One perspective comes from a museum staff member, the other from an invited young cultural creator.
When?
Starting 19:00, 20:00, 21:00, 22:00, 23:00. Duration: approx. 20 minutes/viewing.
Meeting point
By the stair case, on the ground floor, five minutes before the start time. No advance registration required.
This evening's viewings
19:00, middle floor (floor 4) room 29, Auguste Rodin, Man's Awakening or The Age of Bronze (in Swedish)
20:00, middle floor (floor 4) room 28, Jenny Nyström, The Convalescent (in Swedish)
21:00, top floor (floor 6), room 1, Jean Grenier, The Return of Vasco da Gama (in Swedish)
22:00, top floor (floor 6), room 3, Rembrandt, The Conspiracy of the Batavians under Claudius Civilis (in English)
23:00, top floor (floor 6), room 14, François Boucher, The Triumph of Venus (in English)
Join a pop-up viewing! Photo: Anna Danielsson/Nationalmuseum.
New exhibitions this spring
Fantasy and Reality – The Art of Johan Tobias Sergel
