What's happening to Milan's museums? Councilor explains, "no micro-openings, yes programming"

There has been much discussion about the decision taken by the Milan City Council not to reopen museums immediately, despite the fact that since yesterday Lombardy has been in the yellow zone again, which means that cultural venues can also open, on weekdays. The councilor for culture, Filippo Del Corno, has repeatedly intervened to explain the position taken by the municipality: in the meantime, it is necessary to specify that, it is true, there will be no immediate reopening, but neither will it be necessary to wait long to see the city’s cultural places open again.

“The opening of cultural places, museums, libraries, cinemas, theaters,” Del Corno explained this morning, “must be planned well in advance and irreversible. To settle for bureaucratic, provisional, discriminatory microopenings is to fail to understand that the crux of the matter is to claim the inalienable right to cultural participation and to assume as a crucial priority for the well-being of the community the return to the sharing of cultural experiences. I continue my battle: only the planned, non-reversible and authentically democratic opening of cultural venues, in full compliance with the medical prescriptions indicated by the scientific community, can be the best possible accompaniment to the vaccination campaign, the sign of a social ’vaccination’ acted by the cultural principals indispensable for the collective health of the community.”

The Municipality has already forwarded the calendar of reopenings: from February 9, from Tuesday to Friday, the exhibitions already set up in the different venues will reopen, some opened and then closed to the public since last November 4, others set up during the period of closure, never opened to the public and visitable until now only in virtual form, told through videos and images on the web. In particular, it will be possible to visit Divine and Avant-Garde. Women in Russian Art and First, Woman. Margaret Bourke-White at the Royal Palace (hours 10am-7:30pm), Carla Accardi. Contexts at the Museo del Novecento (10 a.m.-7:30 p.m.), Giuseppe Bossi and Raphael at Castello Sforzesco (10 a.m.-5:30 p.m.), Under the Sky of Nut. Divine Egypt at the Archaeological Museum (hours 10am-5:30pm), Horticanoodles. Inside at the Studio Museo Francesco Messina, The First Season of Gianni Dova at Casa Boschi di Stefano (hours 10am-5:30pm), The Great Inca Road at Mudec (Khaled Assad Room). The exhibition Luisa Lambri. Self-Portrait, set up at PAC Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, will open instead on Tuesday 16 (hours 10am-7:30pm).

There will be extended reopenings starting Feb. 16, when it will again be possible to visit or rediscover the permanent collections at Castello Sforzesco (hours 10 a.m.-5.30 p.m.),Acquario Civico (hours 10 a.m.-5.30 p.m.), GAM-Galleria d’Arte Moderna (hours 10 a.m.-5.30 p.m.), Palazzo Moriggia - Museo del Risorgimento (hours 10 a.m.-5.30 p.m.) and Palazzo Morando|Costume Moda Immagine (hours 10 a.m.-5.30 p.m.). To access the exhibitions and museums, reservations are not necessary but always recommended. Finally, a special week dedicated to the opening of the city’s museum system will open on March 2, in conjunction with Milano Museo City, which will feature the Museo del Novecento and the Museum of Natural History, with rearrangements and new sections, and Palazzo Reale, which will open the exhibition Le signore dell’Arte. Stories of Women from the Sixteenth to the Seventeenth Century, a large production dedicated to the artists who lived in that period: Artemisia Gentileschi, Sofonisba Anguissola, Lavinia Fontana, Elisabetta Sirani, Fede Galizia, Giovanna Garzoni, and many others.

“The cultural policies of the Municipality of Milan,” Del Corno further said, “are first and foremost focused on safeguarding and enhancing the civic heritage, an activity that has been programmed and carried out with great commitment and planning ability by all directorates during these long months of forced closure. That is why it is necessary to safeguard the programming of activities that are still ongoing in some museums, which will return renewed routes and new services to the city. But we also need to be aware that exhibitions, whether permanent or temporary, accompany visitors on a path of personal knowledge and collective growth, so they perform a public service of great value to the entire community. Therefore, I think it is essential to keep the doors of museums and exhibition spaces open on weekends as well, when workers, students and families have a real opportunity to access them.”

The opening schedule of Milan’s cultural institutes, the municipality announced, follows the planning of cultural, scientific and artistic activities that were never interrupted during the periods of forced closure due to Covid: restoration projects, refurbishment of collections, scheduling of temporary exhibitions, reorganization of services and constant training and educational activities.

Pictured: the Museum of the Twentieth Century

What's happening to Milan's museums? Councilor explains, "no micro-openings, yes programming"

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