Istituzione Bologna Musei closes: the museums' autonomy ends; they will revert to the municipality

After exactly ten years since its founding, theIstituzione Bologna Musei in Bologna is closing: the decision by Mayor Matteo Lepore was presented yesterday in the junta, and will soon reach the City Council. The museums will therefore go back to being managed directly by the City Council, which will create a special sector. Museums will thus follow libraries, which have already recently undergone internalization. Palazzo d’Accursio’s new museums sector will come into operation on July 1, the date on which the board of directors of the Istituzione Bologna Musei will also lapse, to be replaced by a new steering committee that will have to plan the relaunch of the museums sector. The directors of the individual institutes remain firmly in place.

Istituzione Bologna Musei was being established in 2012 and became operational on January 1, 2013. The institution brought together Bologna’s civic museums under a single umbrella: the resolution establishing it was described as a “great opportunity for the definition of management parameters appropriate to the present operating conditions, for the rationalization of services and resources, and for the framing of a considerable heritage in a renewed and coherent cultural project.” The Institution’s objectives were to formulate a unified scientific and disciplinary project, enhance the value of the heritage, improve the identification of the mission of the municipal museum system with related possibility of revitalization, and rationalize and coordinate the management of financial resources and administrative and accounting activities. Thirteen museums are part of the Institution: the Palazzo d’Accursio Municipal Art Collections, the Medieval Civic Museum, the Davia Bargellini Museum, the Tapestry Museum, MAMbo, the Morandi Museum and Casa Morandi, the Ustica Memorial Museum, Villa delle Rose, the Civic Archaeological Museum, the International Music Museum, the Museum of Industrial Heritage, the Civic Museum of the Risorgimento, and the Certosa Cemetery.

The decision came about essentially for two reasons, Lepore explained: the first is the fact that the assumptions of autonomy that had led to the founding of the institution have now come to an end, and the second is the fact that the path of internalization of the libraries, after two years of its inception, has yielded satisfactory results.

“A revolution for the municipal museums is starting,” said Mayor Lepore, “we decide to relaunch with new investments, and 85 total hires in the cultural sphere between 2021 and 2022. We are closing this institution that from the bureaucratic point of view was straining the whole organization of the municipality, and we are bringing home the employees of our museums, because we believe in them, we believe that the civic museums have a great future. We are also opening ourselves up to collaborations with even the foundation system, the private system, which I will want to meet with soon. We are also selecting a new director/director, together with the outgoing board of museums we will also select a new steering committee, and we will propose to the city a project that will bring new exhibitions, new investments, new cultural projects.”

The mayor let it be known that he will propose in the council an increase in funding for the museums in light of the strategic plan that will be defined in the coming months. Some anticipations concern the international museum dedicated to Giorgio Morandi, for which 3 million euros will be allocated, and the Memory Pole at the August 2 Station (which should become the new home of Art City), for which 20 million euros are planned. “The idea,” Lepore concluded, “is of a great European city with an adequate museum system.”

Image: Bologna, Palazzo d’Accursio. Photo by Klaus Graf

Istituzione Bologna Musei closes: the museums' autonomy ends; they will revert to the municipality

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