“Right now, with the summer we anticipate, the pandemic It almost seems like an ancient story to me. This year is going better than we had anticipated”, he affirms with optimism Emmanuel Guigon, director of the Picasso Museum in Barcelonasharing the recovery expectations with other managers of Catalan art centers. After the debacle caused by more than two years of health crisis, with a first total closure of three months, ertes and a slow and progressive opening with different capacity restrictions and the consequent decrease in income, they face, after the timid growth of 2021, a palpable comeback of public (visits fell more than 70% in 2020), although it is not yet expected to reach the pre-covid figures of 2019.
Before the Nit dels Museums, which is being held this Saturday with open doors from 7:00 p.m. in 120 cultural spaces in Catalonia, three of its directors explain what formulas they have applied over the years and how they are facing the new stage. Along with Guigon, Pepe Serra, at the head of the National Museum of Art of Catalonia (MNAC)Y Elizabeth Duran, deputy director general of the Fundació la Caixa, by Caixa Forum Barcelona.
Welcomed by all is the Nit dels Museums; although they would prefer that people visit them the rest of the year, the free nature, the schedule and the offer of activities help attract an audience that normally does not go to museums, they point out, and that in this way can discover things that make them need to return another day.
Before the tourist visitor disappearance for months everyone has turned even more to the local public. The MNAC It expects to reach half a million visitors this year (it already has 200,000), compared to 838,000 in 2019. “Before, half of the public was already from here, but now it is 70%. Part of the tourism has already returned” Serra says. “The economic loss of income during the pandemic has been brutal and we have not recovered it yet, but this has taught us to work more efficiently and prioritizing things, such as the museum being present in the neighborhood and the city, for example by collaborating each year at a show greek festival“. In this proximity, the MNAC has also opted to have living artists working on works in the museum, such as Perejaume or Francesc Torres.
Tourists and locals
Guigon stresses that they have “changed the idea that the Picasso is a museum only for tourists, that people from here did not come for fear of queues. It has come”. In 2019 they exceeded one million visitors; in 2022, until April, they totaled 184,600. “And we are working towards 2023, with the 50th anniversary of Picasso’s death, with exhibitions such as one with the collaboration of the Fundació Miró , but also with activities in the city and reinforcing the Catalan network, with Horta de Sant Joan, for example, to give an image of the museum away from tourism”.
“Two years later we are pleased to see that we have recovered the number of visitors we had before the pandemic. Interest in culture has increased,” says Duran. In CaixaForum, where “they work to promote the recurring visit of the local public”, registered in 2019 about 675,000 people. “On June 1, 2020, we were the first cultural institution to reopen its doors; we made a great effort to recover the cultural pulse as soon as possible, understanding that it was a central element for recovery and personal well-being after a very hard stage. has shown that culture is more necessary than ever”.
Widespread Visitor Recovery
All the museums consulted are recovering visitors. This week, the Gala-Salvador Dalí Foundation already interpreted as a “recovery trend” to carry 76,030 so far this year, 60% of those received in the same period of 2019. From the Macba They also speak of a “clear recovery”: until April they had 66,077 (34,000 more than in those months of 2021) and they expect to continue increasing in summer. As in the CCCB, where this 2022, until this week, they have accounted for 85,000, 15% more than last year at this time. In the Miró Foundation, Until April 30, they added 68,000 (in all of 2021 there were 96,000).
Given the reduction in income and the pandemic economy, the consolidated option, especially on the part of the MNAC and Picasso, has been to choose to forge exhibitions using the pieces from own collections permanent, fleeing the calls ‘blockbusters’ (which generate high transport and insurance costs), opting for more modest samples but equally or more attractive and that last longer in timeand with collaborations with other centers.
“The fact that the exhibitions are small does not mean that they are less interesting or that they cannot be a success in terms of media coverage,” Guigon points out, with two clear examples: the exhibition on Lola, Picasso’s sister, or the one still active on the research in works of the blue period. “I have always mounted exhibitions based on the collection, seeking aspects and unpublished things to share them with the public, not only with those in the know, for me it is a cultural obligation. I think the meaning of a museum lies in its collection, its history, and in taking into account the public of the city in which it is located. We have adapted economically and that also happens because the samples are not huge so that they are not too expensive”, he adds. Two of the next ones, in June, are also in this line, with pieces from the collection, one on Brigitte Baer, author of the catalog raisonné of Picasso’s engravings, and another with 600 photographs taken by lucien clerguegreat friend of the artist.
No to the ‘blockbuster’ exhibition
“I have never believed in ‘blockbuster’ exhibitions -Serra agrees-. You have to bet on things with more added value, public service, return projects. Performance is not only measured in figures and long queues but also in qualitative variables “. An example of this is “the repercussion that the exhibition is having ‘maternity’, which occupies a room of just over 10 square metres”, with works by the cartoonist Nuria Pompeia and of others forgotten women artists.
However, the MNAC can boast of having organized the ambitious exhibition on Gaudiwhich can now be seen in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, and next week will open another with no less attractive on William Turnerco-organized with the Tate in London, and in July there will be another on the Herrera Chapel in Carracci, along with the Prado Museum and the Palazzo Barberini in Rome. “We have been able to do them because we have known how to spend resources better and because we work with centers from the rest of Catalonia and also from outside,” Serra points out.
Collaboration with other centers
It is also “in CaixaForum’s DNA -Recalls Duran- the collaboration with large cultural institutions around the world, such as the British Museum, the Pompidou Center, the Prado…. This model has proven very effective during the pandemic, since it has allowed us to continue programming joint exhibitions “. “There has not been a change when it comes to scheduling and devoting resources to shows. We have continued to seek balance in the programming: modern and contemporary art, archaeology, cinema and photography, architecture and design, and science and nature. With a renewed and wide enough offer to satisfy all tastes”. As examples, the current exhibition on Magritte, the one that opens next week on the phenomenon of tattooor the recent presentation of Miró’s tapestry, being restored to the public.
Accelerating digitization
Related news
Everyone agrees that one of the changes that the pandemic has accelerated, even if they already had it on the agenda or had begun to promote it, is digitization. This week, according to a report prepared by the Advisory Board for the Arts on centers across the country, 84% of museums have reconsidered their online strategy. “Digital access to heritage is free 24 hours a day and means that they can see you from Helsinki -confirms Serra-. We are working to provide as much information as possible about the collection online. Because the digital experience can generate the need to come physically”.
Also at CaixaForum they are “clear that projects must combine face-to-face with the digital part” and seek to “promote cultural consumption outside the exhibition halls”. At the Picasso they are also renewing the website and working to reinforce the virtual offer. “It is necessary to capture public also from the network”, says Guigon. An example of its possibilities is the seminar, held this week, on feminism and Picasso, where they have brought together intellectuals from various countries. Thanks to Zoom.