Bologna's Pinacoteca Nazionale nears 100,000 visitors in 2023. Guercino exhibition extended.

In 2023, the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna recorded an attendance number it had not reached in many years. In fact, from January to December, 99,850 visitors walked through the museum’s halls, 15.85 percent more than in 2022. There was also a growing presence of young people between the ages of 18 and 25, who made up 10 percent of total visitors.

Contributing to this result were the exhibitions Julius II and Raphael. A New Season of the Renaissance in Bologna, presented between 2022 and 2023, and Guercino in the Studio, an exhibition created as part of the vast project to valorize the artist from Cento promoted by the Metropolitan City of Bologna and the Emilia-Romagna Region. Inaugurated at the Pinacoteca on Oct. 27, the exhibition had more than 21,800 visitors through Dec. 31, while the related in-depth activities sold out. It is in light of these important results that the management has decided to extend its opening until Feb. 25, 2024.

“The growth of the museum in terms of visitors and income is a very significant indicator with which we are naturally satisfied,” commented National Art Gallery Director Maria Luisa Pacelli, “but equally important are the positive feedback received regarding the cultural offerings of the Pinacoteca as a whole, a proposal in which the museum invests heavily and which has proven to be able to intercept the heterogeneous interests of a varied and increasingly loyal user base.”

A rich calendar of guided tours for adults and family workshops, lectures and special events organized for city and national events such as Art city, European Heritage Days, Families at the Museum Day, Memorial Day or Museum Night was presented throughout the year.

The completely free didactic-educational proposal aimed at schools has been very well received: in 2023 almost 100 classes and about 2,300 students participated in the activities organized by the Educational Services.

The Pinacoteca was also the scene of a summer festival of events, organized in collaboration with Orchestra Senza Spine and co-financed by the General Directorate for Entertainment of the Ministry of Culture.

Great attention was also paid to the project of renewing the permanent exhibition routes, which will invest both relevant venues in their entirety in successive phases, and which in 2023 involved the Renaissance section for which a new layout was presented.

Relations with public institutions and numerous private entities in the area have also been expanded. In this area, in addition to confirming key collaborative relationships for the institute, such as those with the Alma Mater and the Bologna Civic Museums Sector, new agreements were activated with entities such as Coop Alleanza 3.0, Banca di Bologna, the MAST Foundation and Federalberghi. Agreements have also been renewed with Bologna Welcome, which has a concession for the museum’s bookshop and with which the Pinacoteca collaborates to enhance the city’s heritage through the management of integrated visitor circuits.

So 2024 opens with the extension of the Guercino in the Studio exhibition and the accompanying lectures and educational activities, but the museum is already working toward a year full of initiatives and events.

Among the first events of 2024, on the occasion of Art City, on Saturday, February 3, the rooms of the Pinacoteca will host Convergenze, with a concert of harmonic singing that will feature several ensembles composed by maestro Roberto Laneri together with Agnese Banti, Valerio Maiolo, Marianna Murgia, Stefano Pilia, and Andrea Trona, and an immersive sound installation, placed in the room dedicated to the cycle of frescoes by Niccolò dell’Abate, curated by Agnese Banti.

Pictured is a room in the section dedicated to the Renaissance.

Bologna's Pinacoteca Nazionale nears 100,000 visitors in 2023. Guercino exhibition extended.

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