Museums reopen in Milan. Here's how, when and what you need to know: dates, extensions, the City's plan

The City of Milan reopens its museums: the plan for the experimental reopening of its civic museums and exhibition venues was presented today, starting May 19, with staggered dates on the different museums. Presenting the plan today were Culture Councilor Filippo Del Corno and Culture Director Marco Minoja. Obviously, everything is subject to the decisions that the government will make: the date of May 18 was announced already two weeks ago by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, and yet it is to be confirmed, as Minister of Cultural Heritage Dario Franceschini reiterated on Sunday. There is, moreover, a second unknown, namely that Milan’s museums will be able to reopen on condition that the city’s technicians have positively verified the sanitization and safety operations of the environments, as well as the availability of the medical and sanitary garrisons required by the competent authorities (at the moment the verifications are in progress).

Milan, however, has a plan. At the level of procedures, the plan is to quota visits on the basis of the capacity of individual museums and “checkerboard” with respect to the city’s territory, so that in the week starting May 19, different urban districts are covered in order to favor proximity cultural services. Again with a view to avoiding queues and large influxes, museums facing public parks, which are typically visited by park-goers on weekends, will remain closed on weekends. Doors closed, therefore, for Castello Sforzesco, the Museum of Natural History, GAM and the Civic Aquarium, the main museums located near or inside the parks. Museum admission tickets will be compulsorily purchased via the web, indicating the time slot in which they will be accessed. For museums with free access (Casa Museo Boschi-Di Stefano, Studio Museo Francesco Messina, Museo del Risorgimento, Palazzo Morando - Costume Fashion Image) it will still be mandatory to book online. Still to be announced instead are the opening hours.

The first week, from the 19th to the 24th, will in short be an important test case, interesting not only for Milan but perhaps for all of Italy, since several museums are not yet ready to reopen in ten days, or have already communicated later dates.

This is the schedule: on Tuesday, May 19, Wednesday, May 20 and Thursday, May 21, the Castello Sforzesco Museums, the Museum of Natural History, GAM - Gallery of Modern Art, the Civic Aquarium and the Boschi-Di Stefano House Museum will open. On Friday, May 22, Saturday, May 23 and Sunday, May 24, the Museo del Novecento, the Museo Civico Archeologico, Palazzo Morando - Costume Moda Immagine and the MUDEC - Museo delle Culture will open instead.

Following this, in the period from May 26 to June 21, the museums will remain open, as mentioned above, “in checkerboard fashion,” that is, taking turns on different days. So here are the days to mark in your diary: Mondays, all museums remain closed. On Tuesday and Wednesday, open GAM, Museum of Natural History, Museum of the Risorgimento, Aquarium. On Thursday, open Musei del Castello Sforzesco, Casa Boschi-Di Stefano and Studio Museo Francesco Messina. On Friday, open Castello Sforzesco Museums, Casa Boschi-Di Stefano, Studio Museo Francesco Messina and MUDEC. On Saturday and Sunday, open Museo del Novecento, Palazzo Morando, Museo Archeologico, MUDEC.

Palazzo Reale, on the other hand, will open its doors to the public on May 28 and will remain open from Thursday to Sunday: hours will be announced later. So it will be possible to visit the exhibition on Georges de la Tour, which has been extended until September 27 (it was supposed to close on June 7). As for the other exhibitions, extension until August 30 (instead of closing on June 14) to see Tuthankamon. Journey Beyond Darkness and extension until July 26 for Roberto Cotroneo. Genius Loci (originally scheduled to close March 29). Admission will also be capped for exhibitions based on room capacity, and online reservations will be mandatory.

Finally, the libraries: the Sormani Library will reopen on May 18 along with another as yet unspecified number of neighborhood libraries. Lending will be reactivated, and the institutions will open Tuesday through Saturday, with reduced hours. Those that will be closed in the first phase will reopen gradually from June 1 to 13. All always with quota access.

“We begin from May 18 a path that leads to the resumption of cultural activities, through experimental measures that are functional to a return to normality of cultural fruition in our city,” said Councillor Filippo Del Corno. “We will therefore welcome proposals, suggestions and requests that come from visitors or other cultural subjects and institutions, and we will use museum spaces on closing days for educational activities and projects dedicated to children, to be experienced in safety. We also intend to seize this opportunity for experimentation to offer a new perspective on the way museum collections are enjoyed, away from evaluation criteria based on numbers and closer to the value of discovery or the more intimate and conscious rereading of works: a new approach that can be a factor of personal and collective growth.”

In the photo: Royal Palace

Museums reopen in Milan. Here's how, when and what you need to know: dates, extensions, the City's plan

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