International Museum Day 2019 was celebrated on 18 May of every year since its inception by ICOM in 1977 all over the world.  This year, over 35000 museums in over 150 countries participated in the IMD celebrations with over 5000 activities and special events occurring in the week before and after Saturday 18 May. 

As members of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), the University of Pretoria Museums participated in the IMD celebrations.  Though, they extended the celebrations to the entire month of May.  As part of these international celebrations, the UP Museums were the only university museum in South Africa and Africa to organize an official special event for IMD that was announced on the ICOM interactive events map. 

Extensive marketing was done in collaboration with the Tshwane museums, the Department of Library Services and the Department of University Relations (DUR).  Moreover, in order to organize and event for IMD, the University of Pretoria Museums collaborated with UP Campus Tours, who are the Heritage and Cultural Tourism Honours students from the Department of Historical and Heritage Studies, to organize a scavenger hunt through the UP Museums.  Red locator signs were pasted on the floor leading to the Museums on the day of the scavenger hunt.  The event was also marketed on the graffiti wall, the Tukkievaria and various plasma screens and digital billboards on Campus.  The scavenger hunt was hugely successful, attracting 805 visitors to the UP Museums on Friday 17 May 2019 alone. 

In addition, the new "UP Museums Beyond Walls Sculpture Route", developed by the staff of the UP Museums, was launched.  The route entails a short 30 minute or a longer one and a half hour walking route of the public sculptures on campus.  These sculptures are also curated by the UP Museums and the route can be either explored by means of a guided tour or through self-exploration by means of the map on the brochure.