The students ‘open up’ Las Meninas! Joint Venture between the Escola Deià and the Museu Picasso

On Thursday, 17 June the Museu Picasso hosted the presentation of the book LAS MENINAS # SÈRIE OBERTA, the result of collaborative venture between the Museum and the Escola d’Art i Superior de Disseny Deià. The story begins with an invitation to the city’s art schools with the aim of opening the doors of the Museum and generating dialogues with young design students, encouraging them to take a fresh and freely critical look at the institution.

The Escola Deià, which specializes in interior design and ephemeral architecture, centred the project on the exhibition concept, with a particular focus on the series Las Meninas, one of the most important works in the Museum’s collection. Read more »

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How to make a museum work: a different Postgraduate course

Postgraduate and Masters Degree courses have been proliferating in an almost vertiginous way in recent years. Training is always a key element, but in times of economic recession it probably is more so. However, between the knowledge acquired in academic training and the necessary requirements and skills for developing professional practice there is often a gap that is difficult to fill. That’s what we intend to do through this Postgraduate course.

How are the loans of works managed? What is done on the day the museums are closed each week? What preventive measures are adopted to preserve the collections? How is a strategic plan produced? How does the storage work? How are the laws that affect museums? How can you attract visitors and, above all, participants? How is the digitisation of the collection done? What opportunities are opened up by the social web or web 2.0? What best practices can be found in museums round the world? The list can go on, but this should give a notion of what we propose to cover. Read more »

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Boring, a Museum? Discover and have fun with creative educational initiatives

It’s just two years ago now that we started educational activities at the Picasso: in April 2008 we launched a pilot project with four models of visits-cum-workshop. The service and the range of options have kept on growing, but we are eager to go still further: issues of accessibility, the museum outside the museum, expanding the virtual education space… In light of all this a visit to Expodidàctica was obviously a great way to find out what other institutions are doing, learn about new materials and gather the latest information on the use of cutting-edge technologies in the fields of art and education.

I visited the Fair two days running and in addition to chatting with a number of groups I took part in several workshops. I want to tell you about two proposals in particular — a project and a workshop: Read more »

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Picasso stories

What story do you think lies behind some of Picasso’s works?

Barcelona’s Picasso Museum and the UOC’s lletrA project invite you to take part in the “Picasso in Words” micro-story writing competition.

The micro-works for this prize should be brief stories of a maximum of 1,500 characters (including spaces). The subject matter should be inspired by one of the following works from the collection at Barcelona’s Picasso Museum: Read more »

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Online learning: MoodleMoot’09

More and more, there are an increasing number of tools available that enable virtual or eLearning. For years the museums have been incorporating new educational ways. Really good examples can be found throughout the country, and these include the WikiDocentes del Guggenheim of Bilbao or the EducaThyssen in Madrid.

A few weeks ago took place the VI MoodleMoot in the centre for contemporary creation, the “Matadero de Madrid“. The meeting of users of this online teaching and learning platform has been organised into sessions of debate and workshops that have let the participants share knowledge: teachers, computer programmers and users have discussed future developments and improvements of the platform, as well as innovations in its uses and applications.

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Making Museums More Accessible

How can we help blind people see art? Is there a way for people with impaired hearing to hear the power of artistic expression? How can we enable a person with a mental disability get the most out of art? In short, how can we improve access to museums and exhibitions for everyone? These and many more issues were the subject of a very intense Conference Day on 26 October, devoted to learning about and discussing the lines of work and the experiences of art museums to become more accessible. The venue: Gaudi’s building, La Pedrera. The speakers and audience: museum professionals and representatives of various disabled people’s associations.

The findings will be presented at the Museums Workshops: Culture and Best Practices. Accessibility and Inclusion to be held in the Museu Marítim de Barcelona from 4 to 6 November. The following is only a summary of some of the presentations.

A lot of us were looking forward to hearing the speaker from the MoMA, and no one was disappointed. Francesca Rosenberg, Director of Community and Access Programs in the Museum of Modern Art’s Department of Education, gave a clear and complete exposition of the many initiatives they are involved in, such as

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