2nd November 2010

Juggling on carrer Flassaders: the progress of the works for the new building of Museu Picasso

This past week from the windows looking onto Plaça de Jaume Sabartés we had the chance to watch an excellent display of ‘juggling’.

The crane used to put up the Museu Picasso annex building was dismantled and taken away in what can only be described as a marvel of mobility.

It took 12 hours of work on the part of the construction company. Once carrer Princesa had been closed to traffic, the crane was moved piece by piece from the middle of the square and a shuttle truck took it out onto carrer Princesa. You can imagine what was involved! Read more »

2nd February 2010

Best practices in the management of a museum

The management of cultural institutions, which is talked about a lot nowadays, goes back a long, long time.  Who doesn’t know the Greek or Roman theatres?  They didn’t function by themselves.  For sure, behind the stages, there were people, the majority often anonymous, who made sure that everything functioned correctly.

And what can be said about museums? Throughout the world there have been teams of people, sometimes more numerous, often rather reduced, often referred to as administration, and now linked to resources, who have carried out the ‘functional’ work.

At the Museu Picasso of Barcelona there are a number of us that work in the administration of the centre.  We could call ourselves the back-office.  Everything from the area of production, maintenance, security, management of the public, management of the services and obviously the economic administration.  Without each of these functions, it would be difficult for the museum to open its doors every day and offer the visitors exhibitions, talks, concerts, and all types of activities linked, in our case, to the life and work of Pablo Picasso, or the neighbourhood in which we are located,  La Ribera.

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23rd December 2009

A crane in Museu Picasso

The buildings that make up the Museu Picasso require constant maintenance, be it building works, installations or painting.

This autumn has been the turn for modifying the air conditioning system on the ground floor. It has been necessary to insulate the circuit and install a new air conditioner. The project was relatively easy to do, but to carry it out, we came up against major logistical problems.

The air conditioner had to go on the roof of one of the buildings; it was just one piece of equipment but considerable in size and weight. Transporting this machine up to the roof was the most complicated part.

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