Art is constantly branded - sometimes rightly - as elitist. But plans for this week's Culture Night show that artists are making an effort to close the gap with their audience

HERE'S A QUESTION: what is free, sometimes beautiful and occasionally funny? It can be sexy, it is often thought-provoking, it may stir your soul and, even though you may be given a glass of wine just for turning up to have a look, it's considered so elitist that many people exclude themselves from it altogether? The answer is: art.

Some people have a mental block about visual art, opera theatre, classical music. Mental blockscan be a type of self- censorship, and we all do it in different ways. I, for example, have never been either dog-racing or ice-skating, though I am sure both are lots of fun and maybe even highly rewarding.

Gráinne Millar, head of cultural development at Temple Bar Cultural Trust (TBCT), recognised that this kind of self-censorship is particularly strong towards the arts and also noted that, as so many cultural facilities are ultimately public spaces, paid for by the taxpayer, it was worth trying to do something about overcoming these mental blocks. Millar's thoughts were backed up by a report in 2004 (from Howley Harrington Architects, for Temple Bar Properties) which highlighted public perceptions about culture as being elitist, introverted and institutionalised. With that in mind, she set up Dublin's first Culture Night in 2006, getting organisations and institutions to open their doors for one night, when everything opens late, special events are held, and most of them are free.

Culture nights have been going strong in Europe for some time. In London's East End, for example, the galleries get together and co-ordinate their openings for the first Thursday of each month, with the result that "first Thursdays" are highly sociable affairs, teeming with people, and with a carnival atmosphere that is a world away from the hushed elitism we sometimes associate with contemporary art.

Millar went to Copenhagen, and to Paris, where the city's event is a genuinely all-night affair. Avid Parisians can get their culture fix until 6am, and more than 1.5 million people take part.

"I had never seen anything like it before," Millar says. "Where what people might consider more 'high culture' could attract people in such huge numbers into the city."

In 2006 in Dublin, 40 organisations took part and, since then, Culture Night has grown. In its second year, 80 organisations in Dublin joined in, with many attractions (such as the Book of Kells at Trinity College, and the National Gallery) breaking their own attendance records.

This year, it goes nationwide, extending to Cork, Limerick and Galway, with plans to expand even further next year. There will be poetry, dancing, theatre, traditional and classical music, opera, astronomy, film and, of course, visual art.

But is a one-night-only approach enough to break down the barriers that are unconsciously erected against forms such as opera, theatre and visual art? Dublin City Council's free lunchtime Opera in the Open series, which takes place during the summer at Wood Quay, demonstrates that there is an appetite for this kind of thing, while blockbuster exhibitions the world over show that art touches the lives of more people than generally tend to own up to it. In fact, I have never really understood why art is thought to be so exclusive, and why some people get so angry about it.

True, stories of the super-rich flying round the world snapping up Koons sculptures, Warhol prints and Bacon paintings for astronomical sums don't help. Just this week, work by Damien Hirst will be up for auction at Sotheby's, with estimates at up to £12 million (€15.2 million) for a single work. Yes, that sort of money belongs to a pretty elite club. But unlike other types of culture (season tickets for Premiership football clubs cost hundreds of pounds and the price of rock concerts goes up and up), you can go into an art gallery and see the works for nothing. If the gallery happens to be the Irish Museum of Modern Art (Imma), there'll be some Damien Hirsts there too, alongside a lot more art that I think is far better, and definitely less hyped.

IN FACT, if the recession really hits hard, looking at art might be the only cultural activity left to us, a lack of funds paradoxically driving us right into the arms of that "elite". But it's not just money that makes people reject art. Even those with the mildest of manners can explode into rage at the sight of a contemporary canvas or abstract sculpture. Now I'm not suggesting we love all of it. ­ I love visual art, but there's plenty I think is pretty dreadful; however, no one expects a lover of music to reject all of it just because Lily Allen is so challenged in that department.

Another paradox that comes into play is that, with gallery opening hours typically being the same as the working day (plus weekends), the audiences with most access to our national art institutions are those who don't have jobs. According to Millar, research commissioned at Culture Night 2007 "showed that 90 per cent of people would attend cultural venues more often if there was more flexibility with access and opening hours, and that 70 per cent of people were visiting cultural organisations for the first time".

This summer, Imma has been attempting to address that, with late openings on Thursdays - although, ironically, this initiative ends on Thursday, the day before Culture Night. (Imma will, of course, be participating in Culture Night, with the opening of its new exhibition, Exquisite Corpse, and all are welcome).

Sometimes people in the art world are their own worst enemies when it comes to opening things up. There can be too much explanation and not enough love.

Recently the Italian arts minister, Sandro Bondi, had a crack at contemporary art. "When I go to exhibitions," he said, "I do what a lot of people do, namely I pretend to understand. But, frankly, I don't understand a thing." I think, unintentionally, he may be on to something.

The point is, sometimes the worst thing you can do is try to explain art. It can be hard enough for artists to know what they intend as they struggle to translate the images and ideas that reside in their heads into actual existing things. When you're dealing with the purely visual, one of the last things you want to do is murder it with words. As Mark Rothko said, when asked to explain his own paintings: "Silence is so accurate."

As well as being involved with beauty, abstract truth, freedom, the wonderful, the lovely and the inexplicable, there is also a branch of contemporary art that is really good fun; that presents a glimpse of ideas that you find yourself later musing on intently.

Then there is the music that, without words, causes you to feel a shiver that comes from the inside out, or that sets your feet moving without you realising it. There's theatre that has you thinking differently about yourself, and acting classes that help you to feel what it is you've been trying to say. There is also a legacy of thousands of years of tradition and culture, from all over the world, that - for one night only - are coming together around the country to welcome all-comers. Elitist? Only if you decide to make it so.

• Culture Night takes place in more than 100 venues across Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway, most of them open late into the evening, many with special events and parties. A guide to Culture Night events will be inThe Irish Times on Thursday. www.culturenight.ie