Few visitors and few resources: the Villa Croce Museum in Genoa closes. And the alderman plays ticket collector.

The adventure of the Villa Croce Museum, the public contemporary art museum in the center of Genoa, may have come to an end. The museum has to cope with low visitor numbers,lack of resources (only 70,000 euros have been budgeted for the entire 2018 exhibition program-a more than paltry sum), and disaffection on the part of the city. Thus, as of Thursday, Elena Piazza, Paola Inconis, and Alessia Moraglia, the three partners of Open Art srl, a startup that has been managing the museum since 2016 (from reception and ticketing to marketing), decided in protest to close their doors.

The three professionals complain about the lack of clear and effective governance. This was stated by Elena Piazza speaking to Genoa Today, “It is a question of responsibility. We were called to play a managerial role to run the museum, we won a tender with a management plan that included activities and projects until 2020. But if the governance does not work, if a public museum is opened in a vacuum, I have the responsibility to point out the problem, because it is a public asset and I am a private individual who suffers the economic effects.” After the end of the current exhibition, Stefano Arienti’s well-received solo show, scheduled for Jan. 28, the museum will experience a period of forced closure, since the next exhibition is scheduled to begin Feb. 20 and the permanent collection is on loan to the MAN in Nuoro. This is too long a period for a private company to manage a public asset: it means a month of lost earnings. And Open Art Ltd. therefore protests. Not least because, Piazza told Genoa Today again, “since we took office we have done nothing but open that museum to the public, to cultural professionals from the city and beyond, and when events and activities were organized with our partners it filled up, the city responded. But then if people don’t come back for the exhibitions then something is not going well.”

In the meantime, Piazza, Inconis and Moraglia have asked to meet with a person in charge of the City of Genoa in order to find solutions to revive the museum. And in order to remedy the closure, today the city councillor for culture, Elisa Serafini, improvised herself as a ticket-taker by opening the museum’s doors and welcoming visitors at the entrance, moreover granting a free tour to those who showed up. The hope, of course, is to find a solution that will allow the Villa Croce Museum to raise its head again.

Few visitors and few resources: the Villa Croce Museum in Genoa closes. And the alderman plays ticket collector.

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