Christmas at Niguliste has become an eagerly awaited tradition and marks the beginning of the winter holiday season at the museum. To celebrate the season of Advent, the interior design company Shishi is decorating the museum’s Christmas tree for the ninth time.

Opening in the Niguliste Museum on 22 November, the exhibition Dives Toletana: Treasures of Toledo Cathedral from Medieval to El Greco presents masterpieces from the 10th to the 17th century. For the first time, works by one of Spain’s most remarkable artists, a Greek-born painter El Greco (Doménikos Theotokópoulos) (1541–1614), will be shown in Estonia. The curators of the exhibition are Merike Kurisoo and Carlos Alonso Pérez-Fajardo.

The Art Museum of Estonia, which celebrates its 106th anniversary on 17 November, offers art lovers extraordinary experiences at its exhibitions, including masterpieces by such great artists as Lucas Cranach, El Greco, Gerhard Richter, and Flemish and Dutch painters. The entire anniversary-week programme emphasises the museum’s role as an engaging partner for a wide and diverse audience: art speaks to all ages and in all languages.

The performance VIIS et modis premieres on Friday, 14 November as the second part of the dance series Life Dances to Eternity, initiated by the renowned choreographer and director Teet Kask. In the St Anthony chapel the solo dance of Teet Kask combines with the music of the Argentine composer Gustavo Twardy.

Merike Kurisoo, Director of the Niguliste Museum and the Adamson-Eric Museum, was the invited keynote speakers at NORDIK 2025, held in Helsinki from 20–22 October. The event is the largest scholarly forum for art historians in the Nordic countries, organised by NORDIK – The Nordic Association for Art Historians, this year in collaboration with the University of Helsinki.

The Art Museum of Estonia is marking the Song and Dance Celebration week with special guided tours across all five of its branches: Kumu Art Museum, Niguliste Museum, Kadriorg Art Museum, Mikkel Museum, and Adamson-Eric. On July 2–4, each museum will host two special short tours daily: at 1 p.m. in English and at 3 p.m. in Estonian.

Under the leadership of the choreographer and director Teet Kask, a series of dance events will begin at the Niguliste Museum this spring, during which dance artists will reveal their visions of the Dance of Death, painted in the workshop of the Lübeck master Bernt Notke at the end of the 15th century.

2025 marks 500 years from the publication of the first book in Estonian. Marking the Year of the Estonian Book, an exhibition opens on Friday, 25 April at the Niguliste Museum which presents the rarest relics of the history of Estonian books and provides an overview of the development of the written language and published materials from the 16th to the 19th century.

In the year 2024, 349,004 art lovers visited the branches, exhibitions and audience programmes of the Art Museum of Estonia. Among them, over 25,100 students and adults took part in educational programmes.

The XXXVIII International Niguliste Organ Week, which runs from the first to the seventh of January, will feature evening concerts and a daily programme showcasing the finest works of medieval and early modern art, accompanied by music. Professor Andres Uibo is the festival’s organiser and artistic director.