Severe staff shortages and work at Chieti's National Museums: no word on when they will reopen

In Abruzzo, the situation of the museums of the regional directorate of the Ministry of Culture is becoming increasingly difficult. Since the region has gone into the yellow zone, few sites have reopened their doors to the public: out of the 15 facilities managed by the regional directorate, only four are currently open, namely the church of San Bernardino in L’Aquila, the Archaeological Museum in Campli (which closes the first three days of the week, while from Thursday to Sunday it opens from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.), the church of San Domenico al Corso in Chieti (in this case only for early risers: weekdays from 9 to 10:30 a.m., Saturdays and Sundays from 9 to 11:30 a.m.), Gabriele d’Annunzio’s Birthplace in Pescara (Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Wednesdays from 2 to 7:30 p.m., and Saturday mornings by appointment only). To figure out when you can go to the museum on Sundays you need to pick up the calendar and mark your appointments: openings on Sundays scheduled only on the first, third, and fourth Sundays of the month, and only in the morning. In theory, the Piccolomini Castle in Celano (which also includes the Torlonia Collection and the Marsica Museum of Sacred Art) could also open its doors, but the city is currently in the red zone so the opening is postponed.

In practice, there is currently only one site that can guarantee a stable and continuous opening, the church of San Bernardino in L’Aquila. Everything else remains closed: the church of San Pietro ad Oratorium in Capestrano, the church of San Bartolomeo in Carpineto della Nora, the abbey of San Clemente a Casauria, the church of San Pietro in Albe, the Taverna Ducale in Popoli, the abbey of Santo Spirito al Morrone, the Museum of the Marshes in Celano, and the abbey of Fossacesia. But hurting most are the closures of the two major museums, namely the Archaeological Museum “La Civitella” and the National Archaeological Museum of Abruzzo in Villa Frigerj, both in Chieti.

“The reopening,” the directorate wrote in a note, “is an event of great importance for a region that is investing every day to finally emerge from this pandemic and the economic consequences it has caused. A message of hope will therefore start from the opening of our Museums: with courage and determination we will be able to restart. A gradual restart in extreme safety that will be followed by the forthcoming opening of the other locations of the Abruzzo Regional Museums Directorate. Important steps that will see lAbruzzo return to speak directly to citizens.” So step by step that almost everything is still closed, and the reasons are unfortunately well known: the bulk of the problem lies in the fact that there is not enough staff in Abruzzo to guarantee continuous openings of state museums.

This had already been discussed last February, when during the timid winter reopenings the Civitella Museum was closed: officially for maintenance of the premises and to dispose of staff vacations, but a few days later the regional director, Mariastella Margozzi, had intervened, letting it be known that in Chieti there is a problem of lack of staff, which was also addressed by requests for collaboration from the Chieti Municipality.

And in recent days the case of the Theatine museums has also arrived in Parliament: the deputy Daniela Torto of the 5 Star Movement has in fact presented, last Thursday, a question to the Minister of Culture Dario Franceschini to make him aware of the fact that on the Civitella and Villa Frigerj the total staff amounts to less than 10 units, and that consequently the exiguity of the staff does not favor the opening of the museums, also making difficult the synergies with the other administrations insisting on the territory of Chieti, also in order to plan common cultural actions. The competitions that the MiC is holding to recruit new staff also for reception activities of cultural places, Torto notes, will end after the end of the upcoming summer season, a period when probable visitors and tourists could visit the museums of the city of Chieti, but if temporary solutions are not found for the summer, the situation seems compromised.

According to Torto, the MiC could make use of Ales, the ministry’s in-house company, to be supported in improving the usability of the cultural heritage, including by assigning its own staff. In any case, it is clear that some measure will have to be taken, not least because, the Pentastellata parliamentarian notes, the “shortage of staff in the two Chieti museums is in addition to the meager staffing of the Soprintendenza archeologia, belle arti e paesaggio for the provinces of Chieti and Pescara.”

The minister’s particular secretariat, however, let it be known in these hours that the national archaeological museums in Chieti “took advantage of the closing period to do a series of rearrangement works and the overhaul of the fire-fighting system,” and that “the works are not yet finished having turned out to be far more complicated than expected in one case because of the historicity of the location and in the other because of the vastness and complex articulation of the building.” The ministry, in the document (a response to an administrative interpellation presented by the Teatino lawyer Stefano Marchionno), acknowledges that there are “difficulties determined by the significant shortage of personnel,” but also assured that the Abruzzo Regional Directorate of Museums, in agreement with the directorates of the two museums in Chieti, has put in place every action to ensure an optimal performance of the work and a rapid reopening, for which, however, at the moment the ministry itself is unable to set a date. One can only hope that Abruzzo’s two main museums will not be without visitors for long.

Pictured: a room at the La Civitella National Archaeological Museum in Chieti.

Severe staff shortages and work at Chieti's National Museums: no word on when they will reopen

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