Exhibitions in Ferrara, Sgarbi: already ready to restart with limited admissions. The logic is to extend

Exhibitions in Ferrara are already ready to start again, says art historian Vittorio Sgarbi as president of the Ferrara Arte Foundation, interviewed by the newspaper Il Resto del Carlino. Before the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic came to close cultural venues, he had opened the exhibition on Gaetano Previati at the Castello Estense (originally scheduled for Feb. 8-June 7), was finishing the one on De Nittis (from Dec. 1, 2019 to April 13, 2020), and was planning the one on Banksy at the Palazzo dei Diamanti, which was scheduled to start today, April 24.

As for the Previati exhibition, the rationale, Sgarbi let it be known, is to extend it until October or November. But the deadline could go even further: “We are thinking,” Sgarbi said, “whether to go even beyond December 31.” There would be the concomitance of the fire at the Castello, the fireworks display held every New Year’s Eve in Ferrara, which could cause problems for the works, however: “I will make contact with the fire department,” Sgarbi said. “It makes no sense to dismantle an exhibition that can still stay up for a folkloric event. Either there is no risk to the works, or it is not done.” As for the De Nittis exhibition, the Foundation is in the process of reimbursing the tickets of those who had already purchased it and were unable to visit: there will be a voucher that will allow them to visit the Banksy exhibition or alternatively visit Palazzo Schifanoia or the Este golds exhibition. The Banksy exhibition will be able to open in May. In general, according to the president of Ferrara Arte, four museums could already safely reopen: the Palazzina di Marfisa d’Este, Palazzo Schifanoia, Palazzo dei Diamanti and the Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, “with no cassation or elimination or postponement of the exhibitions already scheduled.”

There will be new ways to visit, which will presumably go through compulsory ticket reservations. “Everyone,” Sgarbi said, “already books his entrance on a certain date and at a certain time. So even at the Diamanti ten people will enter at a time, covering the different museum rooms. Even here you can get up to 200, 300 guaranteed admissions with reservations. It will be possible from the beginning to control the number of visitors that can be accommodated each day.” Sgarbi said that “we have studied a formula of ten people entering the exhibition every quarter of an hour. At the Castle we could get to numbers of 300 people in a day, spaced out, in compliance with prevention measures.”

As for future initiatives, Sgarbi anticipated exhibitions on Giovanni Battista Crema, Arrigo Minerbi, and, for 2021, a review of the Cavallini Sgarbi collection, to be held at the Castello Estense.

Exhibitions in Ferrara, Sgarbi: already ready to restart with limited admissions. The logic is to extend

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