The MUSE – Science Museum – of Trento, designed by starchitect Renzo Piano, has just turned five. From 29 July 2013 – when the Trento Science Museum opened its headquarters – to 30 June 2018, visitors were over 3 million. The presentation of the data was also an opportunity to communicate a new important investment in culture: the MUSE digital planetarium which will be inaugurated in the spring of 2019.
Three million and 200 thousand is the number of visitors who have visited the facilities that are part of the MUSE network since its inauguration. These are visitors fromthe Science Museum designed by Renzo Piano and its territorial structures: Gianni Caproni Air Force Museum, Pile-dwelling Museum of Ledro, Alpine Botanical Garden of Viote, Terrace of the Stars of Monte Bondone, Limnological Station of Lake Tovel, Geological Museum of Predazzo and the recent Udzungwa Visitor Center in Tanzania. It is a positive and constant trend over time of over half a million visitors a year which testifies to MUSE's ability to be a relevant structure for cultural tourism, for the numerous educational activities, for employment and for local development .
Also for 2017 – to confirm the percentages of previous years – the origin of visitors breaks down into a 24% of visitors from Trentino Alto Adige, 69% from other Italian regions, 7% from abroad. Among the neighboring regions that are confirmed to be most fond of the Museum, Veneto with 26% of origin, 20% Lombardy and 12% Emilia Romagna. For foreign countries, 38% come from Germany and 11% from Holland. Data that speak of the museum's ability to be a point of reference and attraction not only for the local public, but also nationally and internationally; an excellence from Trentino that stands out well on an international level, just think that the excellent number of visitors places the Museum in the top ten of the most visited Italian museums and 1st for number of visitors among scientific museums.
Among the visitors, the contribution given by groups and schools corresponds to 40% of the total. In 5 years, school users came close to one million admissions, with schools that come, in addition to Trentino, mainly from Veneto, Emilia Romagna and Lombardy.
The car MUSE is also a source of employment, especially young people: every year more than 250 people find employment and/or higher education opportunities there. Approximately 85% of the staff are university graduates and the average age is 37. Furthermore, gender diversity is an asset to the Museum: in fact, 57% of the people employed are female, 43% male. Finally, it is pleasing to point out that, in 2017, MUSE obtained the Family Audit Executive certificate, a certification that aims to make work commitment compatible with family and personal needs.
From economic point of view, MUSE has reached a self-financing capacity of around 46%, a unique figure on the national territory and very significant also at a European level, with an induced on the provincial economic system equal to approximately 7,5 million euros per year.
Among collaborations, in these 5 years, MUSE has worked actively with 142 institutions in Italy and abroad: 95 entities based in Trentino, 10 in Alto Adige, 26 in the remaining Italian regions and with 11 international entities based in Italy. International collaborations also with regard to research, with over 80 international partners including institutes, research bodies, foundations, etc.
INTERVENTIONS AT A GLANCE
MARCO ANDREATTA - Muse, 5 years of excellence
Five years after its opening, the Muse continues to intrigue and fascinate, to stimulate cultural debate, to increase knowledge and awareness of science problems in all of us. From many points of view it increasingly represents a unicum, a cultural excellence in Italy and in Europe, which addresses topics of great interest and relevance such as environmental sustainability, respect for biodiversity, accessibility and quality of training, collaboration to achieve common goals. Central issues in the political and economic agendas of the world, described among the 17 sustainable development goals of the UN 2030 agenda. Themes that have long been dear to the culture and politics of our territory, which has always treated them with great seriousness, often anticipating the times and positively influencing the choices of the whole country. The creation of the Muse represented a fundamental step in the process of investment in research and innovation developed in Trentino over the last 50 years; for this we have to thank all the Trentino people and their political representatives, but also the many people, scientists, cultural operators, entrepreneurs, who have transferred their activities here to participate in the enterprise.
Muse has important partnerships with research, training and dissemination institutions all over the world. For example, it is signing a framework agreement with the Italian Space Agency, with which we want to reflect on the problems of space, from the discovery of gravitational waves to new human missions in space.
The issues addressed by MUSE often divide society, they are "hot" issues such as global warming, the progressive melting of glaciers and new biotechnologies.
The most difficult challenge that Muse will have to face in the coming years will be to involve an even wider sector of society in the debate and in the formation of scientific awareness. To make people understand that a scientific analysis of problems can only increase understanding and does not conflict with individual ethical and aesthetic sensitivity.
In addition to the contribution of scientists and popularizers, on this issue, Muse will have to involve more and more the so-called stakeholders, from businesses to tour operators, from traders to social workers. Continuing to interest and entertain our allies and users who are, alongside the world of education and research, the general public who love culture, who want to know and above all understand, to make shrewd decisions on the difficult problems of our time.
MICHELE LANZINGER - The first five years of life like occasione to think about the future.
Muse is an instrumental body of the Autonomous Province of Trento and our strategic planning is declined in this area of roles and interdependencies between structures. Some fundamental steps, some radical transformations that Muse has made in recent years are to be considered a heritage not to be lost; the ability to generate knowledge starting from firsthand scientific research, for example. Scientific research has "illuminated" the museum's cultural journey in recent years with the concrete translation of specific knowledge into local development actions. As for the future, Muse was among the first internationally to have placed the 17 Sustainable Development Goals at the center of its vision, adopted as a global strategy to be pursued by 2030 by the United Nations. MUSE has intercepted them since their enunciation, gradually bringing them to the center of the way of understanding the new identity of the museum and moving the programming well beyond the ancient triptych of conserving, studying, exhibiting.
Alongside the attention to the tangible or intangible heritage preserved, a task that certainly cannot be forgotten for museums is that of intense civic participation. It is a beautiful challenge for museums that find themselves able to re-read and experiment with a completely new paradigm: to be places of conservation of heritage and at the same time very important laboratories for developing the future. It is therefore also a super concrete commitment for MUSE which, as it prepares to complete its first five years of activity, finds itself in a position to intervene in these new and stimulating areas.
