Good practices in museums: the exhibition on nineteenth-century Bologna at the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna

We often talk about what museums should do to be more engaging, attract a larger and more diverse audience, vary their cultural offerings (and not only, someone will add). We were in Bologna earlier this month where we saw an excellent concretization of what we think should be good practices in museums, and in particular we refer to the exhibition that is running at the Pinacoteca Nazionale until April 27, entitled The Nineteenth Century in Bologna in the Collections of MAMbo and the Pinacoteca Nazionale.

Why did we like this exhibition so much and could even shape itself as an example for other museums to follow? For several reasons. First, there is so much talk about connecting museums to the territory. The museum should have, among its roles, to bring out the salient aspects of a community’sidentity. The exhibition on nineteenth-century Bologna succeeds very well in this, because it gives us a glimpse of Bolognese history that is told to us through the paintings: the exhibition acquaints us with the history of the Academies of the time (thus art history), brings us into contact with the themes of literature and music that were fashionable in Bologna at the time (and from art history we move on to the history of costume), and also lets us enter the daily life of nineteenth-century Bologna because there are several genre scenes on display (and thus we also move on to the history of society).

Second, because it is a striking demonstration that making a good exhibition does not require huge investments. The comparison with the other exhibition that is literally blowing up in Bologna these days, the one on Dutch painters at the Mauritshuis in The Hague (which for many is simply the exhibition on Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring ), is inevitable. Of course, no one doubts the quality of the paintings on display at Palazzo Fava, but to make a good exhibition, in our opinion, it is not only necessary for the names of the authors of the paintings to be highbrow: there needs to be a solid project behind the exhibition (scientific, or popularizing), that the exhibition has a connection with the historical and cultural context in which it is going to be placed, that it works in such a way that the visitor leaves enriched by the exhibition. These are all characteristics that the exhibition on the Bolognese Ottocento possesses, plus we must consider the merit whereby the exhibition has achieved these goals with reduced investment, since the ninety or so paintings on display are all part of city collections and were often pulled from storage. We could make a comparison with cinema: we can make a movie with all the greatest actors in the world and an Oscar-winning cast, but if the plot is not consistent, if the cinematography and soundtrack are not right, if the script is banal, we will have a drab result. Conversely, it is possible to make a beautiful film with actors who are not exactly well-known. Film history is full of examples of either case.

Third, because it is suitable for all kinds of viewers and adapts to different levels of reading. We have already mentioned how the exhibition delves into certain themes related to nineteenth-century Bologna and is therefore a suitable exhibition for a public that wants to enrich its knowledge, but we have not mentioned that it is also an interesting exhibition for a public that observes paintings according to the yardstick ofaesthetics or, in other words, for a public that observes paintings in order to feel emotions in front of the works. Because we are convinced that it is also sacrosanct to visit an exhibition in order to feel emotions: the profound mistake lies with those who simplistically set emotions against knowledge, moreover making a very low-level intellectual operation, because it is absolutely not true that the two elements (emotions and knowledge) cannot coexist. Here, then, is the visitor who will have come out pleased and satisfied after contemplating Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring (or Girl with a Turban as the case may be), will be able to feel the same emotions when confronted with the beautiful Bather by Antonio Rosaspina, a half-unknown comprimario of nineteenth-century Bolognese art but not for that reason incapable of producing evocative paintings.

Fourth, it is perceived that this is an exhibition made to put the visitor at ease: the colors used for the panels are enveloping and soothing, the explanatory panels have been made in a language consonant with a wide audience, and at the entrance to the exhibition several brochures with all the information about the exhibition have been made available, brochures where, among other things, the visitor will find extensive descriptions of all the four sections of the exhibition, together, moreover, with the list of all the works on display, something very rare to be found in a brochure for the public.

Fifth, because there is a project behind the exhibition that goes beyond the exhibition itself. In fact, we read from the exhibition’s illustrative brochure, “the collaboration between Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna and Istituzione Bologna Musei confirms the desire so that the arrangements of the public structures are a guarantee of protection for the preservation of the works, but without renouncing the commitment to put back into play their own pertinences and to overcome bureaucratic rigidities in order to build richer and more complex projects in favor of a motivated scientific interest and at the disposal of the legitimate expectations of the public.” The desire of Bologna’s museums is a bit like that of all of us culture lovers: museums that know how to simultaneously conserve, teach and excite, address an audience of experts and insiders as well as an audience of enthusiasts, thus creating initiatives that know how to converse with both audiences (and perhaps, why not, converse with all audiences at the same time). We therefore hope that Bologna’s museums will continue along these lines!

It is clear, however, that since it is not a “box-office” exhibition, so to speak, it does not even have a great appeal to the public, but this does not mean that initiatives such as that of the Pinacoteca di Bologna cannot have the same appeal, for the general public, as more distinctly commercial events: it is a matter of combining, even with more “sophisticated” exhibitions, the right amount of marketing, which is not a term to be horrified by, as the most extremist of purists often do. One must be horrified when art comes into the service of marketing, but when marketing is in the service of art (and successful exhibitions) then excellent results can be achieved. Initiatives such as those of the Pinacoteca di Bologna are the ones we want to see more often in museums, and they are the ones that could really bring a diverse audience to museums (perhaps by getting people who had never even been in museums before): will they then become a systematic practice, and will they get the right and deserved support? We would all stand to gain!

Warning: the translation into English of the original Italian article was created using automatic tools. We undertake to review all articles, but we do not guarantee the total absence of inaccuracies in the translation due to the program. You can find the original by clicking on the ITA button. If you find any mistake,please contact us.