MUMU Musica al Museo
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
Category
Project Description
MUMU is an immersive experiential path that brings together the beauty of the most extraordinary Italian art masterpieces with the listening of live chamber music, in an intimate setting.
The offer includes a special museum visit and a short concert in front of an artwork. The tour is addressed to small groups of around 15 people, with staggered entrances every 30 minutes.
Le Dimore del Quartetto can merge local MUMU offers in national and European itineraries of discovery and beauty.
Project Region
EU Programme or fund
Description of the project
Summary
MUMU Musica al Museo is an immersive experience that brings together the beauty of the most extraordinary art masterpieces with the listening of live music.
The offer includes a special museum itinerary and a short chamber music concert in front of an artwork. The tour, lasting around one hour, is addressed to small groups of 15 people, with staggered entrances every 30 minutes.
The project has been especially conceived for enhancing local museums and concert societies, as well as for attracting local audiences in cultural heritage sites. It is based on connecting a museum and a concert society of the same territory: the two entities pool their know-how and resources, and communicate the initiative to their different audiences, giving life to a common project where the overall value is much higher than the single values of the organisations involved.
Le Dimore del Quartetto, consistently with its mission and activities, acts as a connector between heritage (museums) and music (concert societies) at national and European level. Its role constitutes the strength and replicability of the project, guaranteeing a homogeneous and recognizable format.
MUMU objectives are:
- Reactivating territories through culture
- Offering local communities unique experiences that encourage them to take part in the social and cultural life of their territory in safety
- Starting strategic local partnerships between cultural organizations
- Offering innovative ways of enjoying music in unusual spaces
- Encouraging local tourism
- Developing new audiences for both the museum and the concert society
- Expanding the job offer for young professional musicians
The first edition took place at Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan, in collaboration with Società del Quartetto di Milano between July and October 2020, with concerts in front of the Preparatory Cartoon of the School of Athens by Raphael.
The proposal intends to develop nationally and become a best practice on the European scene.
Key objectives for sustainability
The project is based on connecting a museum and a concert society of the same territory.
The know-how and resources of the museum become valuable for the concert society, and vice versa, in a circular economy based on pooling two different and complementary expertises. The result is a common project where the overall value is much higher than the single values of the organisations involved.
The city public of concert societies go to museums emptied by the absence of tourism, and museum spaces become ideal for chamber concerts with a small audience.
More specifically, on one hand the museum can benefit from a “ready-to-use” high-quality content to propose during its special openings (for example, during the evening), which attracts people that are used to attend music performances and other curious spectators that have a specific occasion to visit a museum in their own city. On the other hand, the concert society can offer a special content to its audience, in a venue that usually does not host music performances. The initiative is also an opportunity for the society to introduce its broader activities to a diverse audience.
The museum covers all the costs related to the museum opening, whereas the society covers the costs related to the employment of musicians. The ticket revenues are divided among the two organisations, both of which pay a fee to Le Dimore del Quartetto for its role of project coordination, guarantee of the format and inclusion of the local experience in a wider national and international itinerary.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
The quality of experience is guaranteed by an artistic director who selects the musicians and programmes to propose in the tour, also in relation with the artwork in front of which the concert takes place, with the other masterpieces presented during the tour and/or with the history of the museum. The program of the concert changes for each shift, making every tour unique.
In Milano, the experience has been incredible for the participants, who had the chance to listen to the concerts of soloists, duos and quartets in front of the recently-restored and magnificent Preparatory Cartoon of the School of Athens by Raphael, in an intimate setting. The tour around the halls of the Ambrosiana then focused on a selection of artworks, curated by the Director of the Museum: the Adoration of the Magi by Tiziano Vecellio, The Madonna of the Pavilion by Sandro Botticelli, The Madonna Enthroned with Saint Ambrose and Saint Michael by Bramantino, The Rest on the flight into Egypt by Jacopo da Ponte, the Vase of Flowers with Jewel, Coins and Shells by Jan Brueghel the Elder, and Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Portrait of a Musician and the Codex Atlanticus.
The project is perfectly consistent with Le Dimore del Quartetto’s claim “Bellezza + Bellezza” (Beauty + Beauty).
Key objectives for inclusion
The project is inclusive because of the affordable price and accessible formula.
The ticket for the tour and concert is only slightly higher than the general ticket for visiting the museum. The price of the ticket is defined in accordance between the museum, the concert society and Le Dimore del Quartetto: the idea is to keep it the lowest possible, while guaranteeing the sustainability of the project.
Concerning the formula, it is accessible also to people that are not used to attending classical music concerts and museum tours: it lasts approximately one hour (15 minutes of music and 45 minutes of tour), in order to arouse the participant’s desire to come back to the museum soon in order to discover more of its artworks and history.
Results in relation to category
MUMU Musica al Museo is a format aimed at supporting local museums and concert societies, for reactivating territories through culture.
On one hand, the project offers the opportunity to local communities to visit a museum of their city or region with a new perspective, developing the participants’ shared sense of ownership toward the cultural institution. In this sense, MUMU Musica al Museo stimulates proximity and sustainable tourism, highlighting the value of marvellous masterpieces that are located close to where we live, and that we often tend to forget.
On the other hand, tourists can discover hidden beauties and live an unusual visit experience.
For these reasons, the format is particularly appealing for smaller or peripheral museums, but it can be effectively applied also to well-known institutions.
Other noteworthy elements of MUMU are the possibility to connect the city (with its concert society) and its surroundings (with smaller museums) with an integrated and unique cultural offer, as well as to link several MUMU local offers in different cities in one wider national or European itinerary.
How Citizens benefit
Citizens have been involved in the project through an integrated communication campaign launched by the museum, the concert society and Le Dimore del Quartetto through social media, website, newsletters and press.
The audience that participated in MUMU in Milan was very heterogeneous: groups of friends, families, professionals who were looking for a high-quality entertainment offer after work, elderly.
The short duration of the visit - approximately one hour - and the tour focused on a selection of masterpieces left to the visitors the desire to come back to visit the museum in the future for discovering more of it.
Innovative character
Le Dimore del Quartetto is not the first organisation that proposes concerts in museums, but the added value of MUMU Musica al Museo can be mainly expressed through two elements.
First, the possibility to connect, through the role and work of Le Dimore del Quartetto, a wide number of local museums and concert societies in a national, and European, itinerary aimed at discovering local beauties with a simple formula.
Second, the experience of a special visit and concert specifically dedicated to small groups of participants attracts both people who have already visited the museum and new visitors: it creates an intimate occasion for discovering or re-discovering the local cultural heritage in connection with chamber music.
The project was born in the context of the Covid19 pandemic, in order to provide concert societies with new spaces where to perform music and attract local audiences to museums when tourists could not travel. However, the project’s formula and expected benefits are relevant also without Covid19 restrictions.
