search all nytimes.com art & design jobs real estate … · 7/22/2013 · events in the near...
TRANSCRIPT
23/07/13 Italy’s Artistic Upstart, the Maxxi Museum, Strives to Make a Splash - NYTimes.com
www.nytimes.com/2013/07/23/arts/design/italys-artistic-upstart-the-maxxi-museum-strives-to-make-a-splash.html?_r=0 1/3
Search All NYTimes.com
Advertise on NYTimes.com
Connect WithUs on TwitterFollow@nytimesarts forarts andentertainmentnews.
Arts Twitter List: Critics, Reportersand Editors
A sortable calendar of noteworthycultural events in the New Yorkregion, selected by Times critics.
Go to Event Listings »
Italy’s Artistic Upstart, the Maxxi Museum, Strives toMake a Splash
Nadia Shira Cohen for The New York Times
The national museum for art of the 21st century in Rome, called the Maxxi, hopes to become a global player incontemporary art.
By ELISABETTA POVOLEDOPublished: July 22, 2013
ROME — It’s hard enough to be the new attraction in town when
you’re up against some of the world’s most famous ancient Roman,
Renaissance and Baroque monuments. But Italy’s national museum
for art of the 21st century, known as the Maxxi, faces even bigger
challenges: attracting a Roman audience, so far largely indifferent,
and establishing a reputation on the international scene while the
government is sharply cutting financing for the arts.
So the leaders of the threeyearold
museum here have established a new
strategy: playing to the crowd as it
strives to broaden its mission and
become Italy’s premier institution of
contemporary culture.
“We need the public to animate this space,” said Giovanna
Melandri, president of the foundation that runs the Maxxi,
whose name is a play on the Roman numerals for 21.
Thus, on a recent muggy summer Monday, a day when the
institution is closed to the public, the place hummed with
activity — frenetic last minute preparations for an opening;
a seminar attended by dozens of young architecture
students; and children on skateboards racing around the
museum’s concrete courtyard.
Events in the near term included lectures on yacht design, Italian fashion, the art market
and the links between food safety and architecture; jazz and Indian music concerts; a film
series on contemporary architects; and a yoga class. That’s on top of what Ms. Melandri
calls the museum’s “core business”: six current exhibitions, including a retrospective for
Francesco Vezzoli, one of Italy’s bestknown contemporary artists.
In ClimbingIncome Ladder,Location Matters
Russia’s AntiGayCrackdown
Log In With Facebook
Advertise on NYTimes.com
MOST EMAILED MOST VIEWED
Go to Complete List » Show My Recommendations
Log in to see what your friends are sharing onnytimes.com. Privacy Policy | What’s This?
What’s Popular Now
1. In Climbing Income Ladder, LocationMatters
2. OPED CONTRIBUTOROur Coming Food Crisis
3. More Than a Flooded Cellar. A VintageMystery.
4. Down in the Delta, Outsiders Who Arrivedto Teach Now Find a Home
5. OPINIONWhy Men Need Women
6. WELLAfter a Sprain, Don't Just Walk It Off
7. OPED CONTRIBUTORRussia’s AntiGay Crackdown
8. PAUL KRUGMANDetroit, the New Greece
9. High Line’s BestKept Secret: It’s a FastCommute
10. THE HOUSE EDGEA Shuffle of Aluminum, but to Banks, PureGold
HOME PAGE TODAY'S PAPER VIDEO MOST POPULAR
Art & DesignWORLD U.S. N.Y. / REGION BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY SCIENCE HEALTH SPORTS OPINION ARTS STYLE TRAVEL JOBS REAL ESTATE AUTOS
ART & DESIGN BOOKS DANCE MOVIES MUSIC TELEVISION THEATER VIDEO GAMES EVENTS
GOOGLE+
SAVE
SHARE
REPRINTS
MORE IN ART & DESIGN (4 OF 48 ARTICLES)
ArtsBeat: Dealer Is Arraigned onCharges Related to Sale of DisputedMasterpiecesRead More »
Try a Digital Subscription Log In Register Now HelpU.S. Edition
23/07/13 Italy’s Artistic Upstart, the Maxxi Museum, Strives to Make a Splash - NYTimes.com
www.nytimes.com/2013/07/23/arts/design/italys-artistic-upstart-the-maxxi-museum-strives-to-make-a-splash.html?_r=0 2/3
In the staid world of Italy’s state museums, such hyperactivity is nothing short of
revolutionary. And it demarcates the role that administrators believe the museum must
play.“Our task is to become the hub for a network of likeminded Italian institutions as
well as the national center for contemporary art and architecture,” Ms. Melandri said.
Officials hope the museum’s goals will come into sharper focus when its first director is
named, a move expected in September. Up to now programming has been defined by the
directors of various sections — art, architecture and so on.
Inaugurated in May 2010, the Maxxi has had considerable growing pains, principally
because of a shortage of financing. In a country where the state foots the largest share of
cultural budgets, austerity measures have left most of them gasping and on the lookout for
new forms of support.
But arts philanthropy has struggled to find a workable legislative formula here in the face
of the culture ministry’s jealous hold on Italy’s cultural patrimony and the prospect that
tax revenue could decline if the government instituted wideranging tax credits for
donations.
“Our strategic objective is to build a cultural institution in Italy equally sustained by public
and private funds,” Ms. Melandri said.
Maintenance costs alone for the museum, a mammoth structure of overlapping flowing
spaces designed by Zaha Hadid, have ranged from $6.6 million to $7.9 million a year.
In its quest for revenue, the museum has brokered deals with tour operators and events
organizers and rented out spaces for gala dinners and corporate meetings. A museum
membership program has been retooled, and corporate sponsors, like the apparel maker
Ermenegildo Zegna and the Italian energy company ENI, have been enlisted for joint
projects related to their brands.
Last year, for example, Zegna commissioned a show for the artists Lucy and Jorge Orta,
who used Zegna fabrics for their installation, and ENI provided archival material like
sketches of old service stations for a current show about “oil and postoil” architecture. The
museum has also added bike racks, a rarity here.
In May the Maxxi organized a fundraising dinner related to the Vezzoli show that raised
$525,000. Donors included Italian fashion houses and national and international dealers
and collectors.
Giancarlo Politi, the editor of Flash Art magazine, said it took Mr. Vezzoli’s star power to
attract donors, a move he described as an “intelligent” model for other struggling
institutions to follow. “Maxxi doesn’t have international clout yet — it’s not MoMA or the
Tate,” he said, referring to the top modern art museums in New York and London.
Michele Trimarchi, a professor of cultural economics at the University of Bologna, suggests
that the Maxxi has yet to identify a strategy that will allow it to establish a global presence.
“Creating things, that’s how you become international,” he said. Otherwise, “you’re
relegated to fundraising efforts that barely cover the maintenance costs.”
The Maxxi has been trying to bolster its profile by collaborating with institutions abroad on
shows that feature both Italian and foreign artists. “Galleria Vezzoli,” for example, is the
first segment of a threepart international exhibition titled “Trinity.” It also includes “The
Church of Vezzoli,” a show at MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, Queens, in which the artist
will reconstruct a deconsecrated church whose parts are transported from Italy. The third
segment, “Cinema Vezzoli,” is expected to open in early 2014 at the Museum of
Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.
Still, the Maxxi’s precarious financial situation makes longterm planning difficult, a
problem common to many cultural institutions in Italy.
“Without continuity we lack credibility for supporters and even private donors who might
want to bequeath art to a museum and have assurances that their donations will be
safeguarded,” said Gianfranco Maraniello, director of the Museum of Modern Art in
Bologna. “You can’t build up a public that way.”
In the short term, however, the Maxxi’s strategy has reaped dividends. Visitors in the first
six months of this year topped 130,000, compared with 101,200 in the first half of 2012.
Lush, Sporty, LuxuryALSO IN GLOBAL FASHION & STYLE »Flowers and PowerBaby Takes a Road Trip
Ads by Google what's this?
5 Signs of Alzheimer'sDoctor: 5 Warning Signs You'reAbout to Get Alzheimer's Diseasewww.newsmax.com
Rome Colosseum TicketsPreBook Fun And Exciting ToursSkip The Lines And Book Today.www.DarkRome.com
wine tours in TuscanyTuscany small group tours, winetastings, views and history!www.cooltours.it
23/07/13 Italy’s Artistic Upstart, the Maxxi Museum, Strives to Make a Splash - NYTimes.com
www.nytimes.com/2013/07/23/arts/design/italys-artistic-upstart-the-maxxi-museum-strives-to-make-a-splash.html?_r=0 3/3
A version of this article appeared in print on July 23, 2013, on page C3 of the New York edition with the headline: Italy’sArtistic Upstart Strives to Make a Splash.
SAVE EMAIL SHARE
Art
Culture (Arts)
Get Free Email Alerts on These Topics
Museums
Italy
“I will be happy when visitors come to Rome to see the Colosseum, the Vatican City and
the Maxxi because it is such a special museum,” Ms. Melandri said.
Ads by Google what's this?
Tour in Italy and UmbriaWalking and Cycling tours to
discover Art, Nature, Food and Wine
www.meravigliosaumbria.com
© 2013 The New York Times Company Site Map Privacy Your Ad Choices Advertise Terms of Sale Terms of Service Work With Us RSS Help Contact Us Site Feedback
HEALTH »
The Kitchen as a PollutionHazard
OPINION »
Ben Yagoda:Should WeWrite What WeKnow?The command implies,as it does, that one’swritten output shouldbe limited to one’spassions.
BUSINESS »
New Civil Action AgainstHedge Fund Titan
WORLD »
Mayor Sees a MuseumAmong Looted Antiquities
OPINION »
Anxiety: TheEnd of AnxietyTimes readers reflect ontheir own experienceswith anxiety to mark toend of the series.
MUSIC »
Bold Strokes in the Country
SCIENCE »
Faster Than the Speed ofLight?
INSIDE NYTIMES.COM