Put your thinking caps on! The long-standing mid-May tradition of International Museum Day is upon us and it’s time for some of Hong Kong’s best cultural havens to open their doors to the public. For free, of course.

This year’s theme, ‘Museums in a Changing World: New challenges, new inspirations’, encourages participants to ponder the current and future role of museums and how people can explore them further as the world rapidly transforms. Since 2001, Hong Kong’s Leisure and Cultural Services Department has been promoting the event in the hope of keeping city museums and heritage organisations on the public radar in a bid to keep them relevant.

If you need extra incentive, check out some of the special programmes on offer for this year’s IMD. Highlights include the ‘Drawing Upside Down’ event. Want to think like an artist? This activity will help wake up the right side of your noggin and sharpen up those creative skills. But if digital is more your thing, you can learn to use an LED torch to produce light rays before inking the image on a camera in the aptly titled ‘Dreams Light Up the Sky’ programme.

If you’re sticking with the ‘oldie but goodie’ approach, the city’s many museums have plenty to offer. Learn about food culture at Tao Heung (above) or ethnology at the Lake Egret Nature Park. Or you could always do it Michael Jackson-style and moonwalk over to the Space Museum (the real, Neil Armstrong moon-walk that is).

Ilene Frankel

International Museum day runs from Saturday May 19 to Sunday May 20. Nearly all museums will be free for the public. See www.lcsd.gov.hk/imd2012 for a list of participating institutions.