Workshops, guided tours, presentations and lectures will be organised and awards handed out.

The head of the Slovenian committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM) Tanja Roženbergar told the press on Tuesday that the idea was to expand the reach of the museums beyond their walls, to stress the need to connect them with the local environments and communities.

She feels the time is also ripe to further cooperation between art lovers and experts. A large part of cultural heritage is kept in private collections and this potential is not being used sufficiently, Roženbergar explained.

While Breda Činč Juhant of the Slovenian Museum Association took the opportunity to reiterate the association's warnings about the desolate conditions in Slovenian museums, Irena Marušič of the Slovenian Museum Society noted that several high quality exhibitions were put on each year nonetheless.

The best shows and projects will be honoured with Valvasor Awards at the Koper Regional Museum on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, an exhibition entitled The National Museums of Slovenia was already launched on Tuesday in front of the Slovenian Ethnographic Museum in Ljubljana.

The ICOM declared 18 May International Museum Day in 1977. It is celebrated in more than 35,000 museums in over 140 countries around the world.