Image: Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona
The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC) in Barcelona is launching a public programme, 'MNAC in Transformation', that will run from 24 October to 19 November and bring together leading figures in museology, art history and architecture to discuss the future of museums. The museum says the initiative is designed not only to share its expansion and transformation process more transparently, but also to generate debate that can inform the shaping of the New MNAC.
According to the museum’s programme page, the series is intended for a broad audience, from MNAC staff and sector professionals to artists, nearby communities, educators and the general public. It will take place in multiple formats, both in person and digitally, and will include publications. The museum also says the programme will unfold across Spain, though the available announcement highlights Barcelona as the place where a number of the international speakers will gather.
Among those named are Adriano Pedrosa, artistic director of the Museu de Arte de São Paulo; Tristram Hunt, director of the Victoria & Albert Museum; Caroline Campbell, director of the National Gallery of Ireland; Francesca Cappelletti, director of the Galleria Borghese in Rome; architect Shohei Shigematsu of OMA; and architect Elizabeth Diller of Diller Scofidio + Renfro. The museum presents them as some of the most influential voices in the international museum and architectural landscape.
The programme sits within MNAC’s wider effort to open its transformation process to collective reflection and discussion. The museum says the conversations form part of a broad public initiative that will accompany a decisive period in its history and invite input from citizens and cultural professionals as the new museum takes shape. On the page, the institution frames the project as an invitation to think about what a museum can become, rather than simply a presentation of completed plans.
The public calendar also shows that the transformation programme has already included earlier events. These were 'Imagining the Future of Museums', a conference by museum expert András Szántó held on 29 January in the Sala Oval; 'Artists. Feminine Plural', a March event recognising women creators born between 1920 and 1950, co-organised with the Xarxa de Museus d'Art de Catalunya and curated by Elina Norandi; and 'Thinking the New MNAC through the Arts', a March day of activities combining a live podcast, the presentation of artistic projects and a new reading of the collections through dance.
Further entries in the programme include the EMPELT project, in which local artists are incorporated into working groups to research and reflect on the museum’s expansion and curatorial renewal, and 'El Museu Dansat', a dance performance by students from the Conservatori Professional de Dansa of the Institut del Teatre. The full public programme continues at MNAC from 24 October to 19 November, under the banner of a museum rethinking its future in public.
