31st January 2012

Farewell to Pepe Serra: assessment of a phase

When our director Pepe Serra said goodbye to the team at the Museu Picasso he told us: ‘We have done ten years’ work in five years.’ What follows is a brief summary of some of the projects carried out during his time as director.

· Research and development of exhibitions that contribute knowledge and added value.

“Feasting on Paris. Picasso 1900-1907” (2011). Self-Portrait with Palette, Picasso, Paris, 1906 |  “Picasso Looks at Degas” (2010). Read more »

26th September 2011

Digital challenges (for heritage, for the cultural sector)

Are we, the organisations, adapting ourselves well to the digital environment? Undoubtedly, a lot of progress has been made and there are successful initiatives and notable efforts have been made towards knowing how to live, or survive (?), in the new setting. But are we doing enough? And are we doing it well enough?

Digital users. New York. Photo: Conxa Rodà Read more »

5th April 2011

Art Museums and Social Networks Fill the MUSAC

The auditorium full, the adjacentbig-screen viewing room full as well, a total of 600 connections to the live streaming broadcast, and a really massive participation on Twitter demonstratedthe high level of interest in the topic and the willingness to learn and share among practising and trainee members ofthe museological professions.

The façade of the MUSAC Museo de Arte Contemporáneo in León, which hosted the one-day Workshop on Social Networks and Contemporary Art Centres and Museums, 1 April 2011. Photo: Conxa Rodà

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14th March 2011

Museums are going mobile /1

In a relatively short time the museums have entered the Internet, created websites, digitised the collections, and entered the social networks. Do we expect even more movements? some of you may be asking. Well the answer is clearly yes. As society changes so the museums also have to adapt if we want to keep and attract new users, either in person or online.

A visitor using the iPad in our exhibition rooms during explanations by Nina Simon. | Image of the iPhone app from the LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) | Presentation of the application about the works of Botticelli within Art, Internet and New Media in Florence. Photos: Conxa Rodà, 2010.

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28th January 2011

Checking out the route of lost objects

Museums are used to being highly visited spaces (or at least it would be good that they were).  Through their galleries and corridors pass tens, hundreds or even thousands of people every day.  This continual traffic can lead to the fact of personal belongings being lost or left behind is very common in museums, and the Museu Picasso is no exception.  Would you like to know how the lost objects are dealt with in our museum?  What do the visitors leave behind? Read more »

20th December 2010

Art and Technology at Florens 2010

There are a lot of very interesting things to tell about our day and a half in Florence. It’s unbelievable that we managed to do so much, despite the rain!

Duomo, Florence

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5th November 2010

How can we make museums more participatory? Nina Simon provides a lot of ideas in her book The Participatory Museum

To get us nicely warmed up before the lecture that Nina Simon will give at the Museu Picasso on Wednesday 17 November, we offer you a review of her widely acclaimed book.

The concept of public participation is associated above all these days with the track opened up by social media. And it’s true that the social networks provide endless options to share, comment, recommend, co-create and, in short, participate so easily and so immediately that we’re still getting used to. But the idea of participation goes far beyond the Web 2.0. The museum visitor, now accustomed to being an agent in the virtual environment must also be offered channels of expression and participation in the physical environment of the museum. Read more »

18th September 2010

After “ASK a CURATOR” : notes for avaluating a good idea

The 1st September was noteworthy in the museum world for an innovative initiative promoted by the untiring Jim Richardson, Ask a Curator. In short: 343 museums from 23 countries from all over the world put their curators at the disposal of the questions users wanted to ask them through Twitter.

The figure alone for the amount of participation is significant in itself. More than 9.000 tweets have been recorded. But I would like to highlight some other interesting factors. Read more »

17th June 2010

Santiago Rusiñol’s The Prodigal Puppet

A painter, playwright, musician, storyteller and one of the supreme exponents of Modernista bohemianism, Santiago Rusiñol was the author of such emblematic plays for the Catalan stage as L’auca del senyor Esteve, L’hèroe, Els savis de Vilatrista and L’alegria que passa. Read more »

12th March 2010

In the Picasso Museu we tell stories… with imagination

Last Saturday took place the first “Contes i Tocs” that this Spring Patricia McGill will tell to children and their parents within the museum galleries.

This activity was organised by Marta Iglesias from Public Programmes. I wanted to attend both out of professional interest so as to get to know this new offer for the family public, but also, as a mother, to live this experience with my children.

The participants and Patricia met up in the Pati Finestres of the museum, and that was where the story began. Nice blue coloured monsters with three eyes and one leg, started to spring up in everyone’s imagination, while she made us take hold of a rope, and pulling on it, led us round the rooms of the museum until we reached Las Meninas, where we found more monsters, princesses, cats and dogs, vacuum cleaner-coffee machines, piano-boats, and even the Little Prince and Little Red Riding Hood… The children and their parents added bits to the story and she intertwined the stories while offering a different way of looking at the works of Picasso, based on her words and our imagination, both individually and what we constructed together between us. Read more »