Malaga's museums

Many will agree that the museum 'boom' has had its desired effect. However it has been achieved, the city's cultural offerings have helped to throw Malaga into the spotlight

Ana Pérez

Malaga

Friday, 12 July 2024, 15:24

Malaga has undeniably been, for years, an international reference point for museums. The general consensus is that 20 years ago, the city's strategy for ... development relied heavily on the rapid opening of new exhibition centres: the Museo Picasso, the CAC Málaga, and the Museo Municipal (MUPAM), followed by the Museo Carmen Thyssen, the Centre Pompidou, the Museo Ruso and the Museo de Málaga.

Many will say that the museum scene would have benefitted from a more natural growth, in which museums would have gradually opened as consumers demanded more. This would have meant that a museum had the time to establish itself before the next opened, and would also have been accompanied by a private offering of galleries, which are, today, few and far between. On the other hand, many will agree that the museum 'boom' has had its desired effect. However it has been achieved, the city's cultural offerings have helped to throw Malaga into the spotlight.

The fact is that Malaga is very talented. This sentiment has been echoed in recent news: the fourth CM Málaga, an international debate forum where museums and cultural institutions from across the world come together to lay foundations for the future, was held in June. All of the important voices were present, from the MoMA to the Prado, from the Vatican Museums to the Van Gogh Museum and the British Museum. And they all agree on the fact that Malaga is a worthy partner in this top tier of art and culture.

So far, so good. We should celebrate the risky move that has transformed the city. But we should also look deeper: what is the real impact of the museum 'boom', if we set aside the major exhibition centres that have set their sights and headquarters in Malaga? Are the cultural offerings living up to the demands of the top tier? Are all of these museums guaranteed to survive?

Twenty years on, it would be no bad time to review the situation critically. The CAC Málaga, for instance, has caused problems for the city council for years - and not just because it hopes to become "something else" when it passes into municipal hands in September. And then there is the MUPAM and the Salas de la Coracha, which, despite great excitement at their respective openings, are now lost in cultural programming which is anything but ambitious or attractive.

The Museo Ruso, whose current precarious position is not due to mismanagement but to war, has lost the original purpose for which it opened. These are not the only examples. Talking of Malaga as the 'City of Museums' is all very well, but beware of enticing façades, and of those projects that are successful obscuring those which are not.

We should pause, observe, and draw conclusions about the situation, just as we do when we are looking at a painting in a museum.

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