At the Maxxi in Rome, the national museum of 2013st century arts, the numbers are growing. And Giovanna Melandri, executive president (she is responsible for marketing and communication) will remain for another five years. She made the announcement herself when presenting the budget for the first term 17-2018 and the calendar of exhibitions for XNUMX. "You can't change the team that wins", she said, publicly thanking Minister Dario Franceschini who confirmed the entire Board of Directors (with the sole exception of Beatrice Trussardi due to her personal commitments). With her remain the artistic director Hou Hanru, the directors Margherita Guccione (Architecture) and Bartolomeo Pietromarchi (Art) and the general secretary of the Foundation, Pietro Barrera.
In five years, the total number of visitors was 1, exploiting the lever of gratuity in many projects to form new audiences. Last year they doubled compared to 740, to 2012. In the five-year period, Maxxi organized 430 exhibitions and 114 educational activities, also acquiring 2472 new works for the permanent collection. For 169, 2018 new exhibitions have been announced, 10 focuses on the collection, 4 special projects and a particular initiative in collaboration with Palazzo Barberini: Echo and Narcissus. Portrait and Self-Portrait with works on the subject from the collections of the two museums, it will inaugurate the new rooms on the main floor of the building, once occupied by the officers' club of the Armed Forces and now returned to the public (from May to October).
THE BUDGET
In 2017, Maxxi was able to count on just over 11 million in total, 6 of which came from the state. In practice, 60% of the resources are public but the remaining 40% are the result of sponsorships, fundraising, events and private patronage. A unicum in the panorama of national museums, if we exclude individual projects such as the restoration of the Colosseum, Pompeii, the Trevi Fountain or the Barcaccia in Piazza di Spagna in Rome. Self-financing (including tickets) grew by 37,5%.
Among the private lenders of Maxxi (193 companies and 149 individuals), theEnel who remains the first founding partner and contributes around 600 thousand euros a year.” The group has confirmed its partnership – explained the director of Communication Cecilia Ferranti – considering it absolutely effective as it has brought many initiatives close to the public and to our inclusive vision of the activity of 'business". In 2018 Maxxi will open a new branch office in L'Aquila, where the Superintendence is completing the restoration of Palazzo Ardinghelli and the new headquarters are expected to be available after the summer. The first Corporate partner will be Deposits and Loans Fund. The public-private formula inaugurated by Maxxi is bearing fruit: the two roads run in parallel and one supports the other. The contribution from private individuals has increased steadily over the five years and serves to finance the purchase of new works for the collection and to make sustainable new initiatives that are offered free of charge to the public, thus acting as a driving force for the increase in visits. The strategy followed up to now has been confirmed by Melandri and the directors also for 2018, the year in which the museum will be able to benefit from 1 million more from the State to be allocated to the purchase of new works and 2 million just allocated by the Budget Law for the headquarters in L'Aquila. The intention is to keep the accounts separate in order to better monitor the performance of the two managements, it being understood that there is only one Foundation and the financial statements are consolidated.
An important novelty for the new year is the take-off of theAmerican Friends for Maxxi the association that has recently obtained, after a long journey, the go-ahead from the US taxman. Donors will thus be able to deduct bequests and donations to the museum from the taxes as well as, in Italy, theThe Revenue Agency has extended the benefits of the Art Bonus to Maxxi.
THE NEW EXHIBITIONS
Impossible to list all the initiatives scheduled for the year that has just opened. Gravity e Home Beirut, also extending into 2018. This year the key appointments, along the four lines of activity launched by Maxxi, are announced in chronological order Arch/Arcology which will see the designer as protagonist Nanda Vigo as part of the Alcantara Maxxi project. Blackout follows with the provocative works of Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla which with sculptures, wall works and videos tell "the dynamics of power, the energy crisis and the difficult situation in the South of the globalized world, starting from Puerto Rico". For architecture, the exhibition dedicated to stands out Bruno Zevic (April-September) on the centenary of his birth. And then, in the vein that looks to the Middle East and the Mediterranean communities, this year the focus is on Africa, celebrated with two exhibitions between June and October. Both will open in conjunction with the Second Italy-Africa ministerial conference. Still to be reported The Street. Paths of encounter, creation and resistance. It promises to be the most important of the exhibitions of 2018, the start is in December, it will last six months with 50 artists involved.
MAXXI IN THE WORLD
Since 2016 there have been 26 exhibitions produced or co-produced by Maxi and exhibited in Italy and abroad. Please come back it will remain in Valencia until May 2018. But above all it will go to the Bardo National Museum in Tunis and then to the Mosaic Museum in Beirut, the new exhibition designed for abroad: Classic released, which revisits the classical art of which Italy is the protagonist and highlights its traces in contemporary Italian art.
