Cecilie Hollberg (Academy Gallery): "The post-virus museum will be digital, collaborative and close to the public."

How does the Accademia Gallery in Florence, one of the most visited museums in Italy and among the top 40 in the world, plan to respond to the challenge posed by the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic? With Cecilie Hollberg, director of the Florentine museum, we took stock of what the museum is doing, what it will do, what the outlook is for the future, and how museums will emerge from this. The interview is edited by Federico Giannini, editor in chief of Windows on Art.

Cecilie Hollberg

FG. Dr. Hollberg, how is the Academy Gallery’s closure period progressing?

CH. The museum is not an office that can be locked, so some staff units have to stay inside. We were very strict from the beginning, when the first decree of the prime minister was issued: I basically sent everyone home. Now, inside the museum, only the guardhouse remains (a museum should not only ensure the well-being of the staff, but also the safety of the building and the protection of the works of art) and the workers active in the emergency construction site that started in March. Then it is necessary to constantly check humidity and temperature data, and all this cannot be done only remotely: the facilities have to be managed in person, and the works have to be evaluated in presence, to see if they have undergone any changes (let’s not forget that since there are no more visitors, the new situation has an influence on the humidity in the rooms). Then, the workers who have to do administrative paperwork that cannot be done remotely also come to the headquarters: however, they are very few, because I care very much that the workers who can stay at home stay at home. And I stress that everyone is working as usual: the art historians, for example, are at work on the museum’s scientific catalog (we recently published the third volume and are now at work on the fourth), and the same goes for the communications office and other workers in the Gallery. I, personally, returned to the museum on February 24 after several months of absence following last year’s reform, and I am using this period to reconnect with our partners, so that we can get back on track with the work we had done and lay the groundwork for future projects.

And among the workers who are active from home are also those who make sure that the Accademia Gallery reaches the public through social channels, so you are also among the museums that “haven’t closed,” and that bring their initiatives and collections to the public through the web. How have you organized your online activities?

We continue every day to invent new content and new formats, with the idea that digital should support the work of the museum, although it can never replace the original. But we are very active, and on social media (especially Facebook and Instagram) we work a lot on education, with content aimed at children as well. And this work on digital is also an opportunity for us to continue learning.

One of the strengths of your online activity is precisely that aimed at younger audiences. Here it is interesting to draw a parallel with what is happening in the United States, although certainly the situations of museums in the two countries are incomparable, but it is nonetheless symptomatic that MoMA has practically demolished the didactics department by firing all the external collaborators, whereas in Italy the trend is to strengthen this sector. Why is it important to invest in education even when the museum is closed?

Meanwhile, I would like to emphasize that it is important to always invest in didactics, no matter if the museum is open or closed. Having said that, education is the tool that brings to people the knowledge enclosed within the museum. And it is a tool that looks at all people, not just the little ones: they are certainly two different audiences, but that is not to say that if adults already have knowledge they are not an audience to be addressed with educational actions anyway. There is so much to transmit, and also to learn! As for children, the work of the Accademia Gallery in this sense intends to speak to the younger ones as well because our goal is to accompany them and invite them from the very beginning to enjoy the museum experience and to make the museum a place where the child wants to go of his or her own free will, as happens, for example, for an ice cream parlor or an amusement park. This invitation is made to children with actions that rely heavily on play (and not in a trivial way, but with intelligent practices): after all, getting complex content to children, young people, or at any rate those who have no prior knowledge, is a major challenge. That is why even during the closing we focused on these aspects. But didactics is still a tool we focus on a lot. Since 2015, that is, since I came to run this museum, we have invested a lot in didactics (I would like to mention, for example, the audio guide for children, which, moreover, is often requested by adults as well!): children and young people are the future not only of museums, but of all culture. We have to imagine that children and young people will be our continuers, and I think we have to get them used to going to museums from an early age. Without this activity, we would have to imagine a future made up of museums without young people: it would not make sense, the younger audience has to be involved. And then let’s not forget that interacting with an audience of children or young people is also stimulating for experts, because often unexpected questions come from the younger ones that make us reflect on our own points of view (for example, confronting young people requires us to think very carefully about the way we explain works of art).

Speaking of audiences, yours is one of the most visited museums in Italy and one of the top forty in the world, with over 1.7 million visitors. Visitors, however, who are largely tourists: it is safe to assume that, for a long time, we will not see them in Florence. So have you thought about how to reprogram the museum’s strategy since you cannot count on the massive influx of tourists that was there before?

Meanwhile, I think it is unlikely that tourism will restart this summer. Underlying the low movement will be not only medical and health provisions, but also psychological reasons: many will be afraid to move. And then there will be economic or labor reasons: with all that has happened, perhaps many will not even have the opportunity to go on trips. In any case, even in the case that flows will resume soon, it will be a proximity tourism, much more regional and local: at least for this year I cannot imagine tourism from abroad. Maybe some will come, but they will be very far from the numbers we knew. And then we need to remember that many scientists fear a second wave of the coronavirus this fall: at the moment we cannot make predictions, but we can still imagine that tourists certainly will not like to be surprised by a resurgence of the epidemic when they find themselves far from home, in a city they do not know, where they do not feel safe because they do not know where to turn. This is also why people will tend to take trips close to home. As far as the Academy Gallery is concerned, we are in a fortunate situation: that is, we can count on very significant income and sound and economic management. We have always used our resources wisely, so we can hold on to this situation for some time. Of course, we also have time to think about how to restart: fortunately, no exhibitions were planned this year because we had planned a series of very important construction sites, and for reasons of missing space we had decided not to do temporary exhibitions. There will not be large flows of visitors, it is useless to hide it: however, we will have to think about how to manage those who will come. In the meantime, we will have to rethink the spaces to ensure that visitors can walk through the museum halls safely and clearly: in the future we will no longer be able to afford, for example, visitors who cannot find a hall or do not understand where the exit is. Some of the work will also have to be done online: the museum will therefore have to be closer to the public, so that the public can better prepare for their visit before they go to the museum, and so that they can already have an idea of what they will see, and where they will see it, before they arrive. Then there will be the regulations to be followed, which will have to be observed and above all understood. And here we are waiting for clear decisions from the Ministry of Culture as to how we will have to move forward. So much will depend on that.

Here, but are you already getting directions from the ministry, or are you working on figuring out how to secure the museum anyway? Because we can already imagine that museums will reopen only if health measures are put in place to protect workers and visitors...

Yes, I can say that the ministry is already working to reopen the museums safely, and is also involving us.

We said that, according to your prediction, at least for this year tourism will be very local. Do you already have initiatives in mind to involve the people of the city and the region more?

It has to be said that, to those who look at it from the outside, this museum looks like a spaceship full of tourists who come from who knows where, but it is not frequented by Florentines. Actually that’s not really the case; we have quite a large local audience. From the very beginning I have been personally involved in the creation of the Association of Friends of the Accademia Gallery precisely to involve Florentines (even young Florentines!), and then there are also programs designed specifically for a local audience (I am thinking for example of the Florentine Voices initiative). However, I want to say that in the future this will not be a priority for us, but for the fact that involving local audiences is something we have always practiced: of course, however, we will strengthen these activities and continue to work a lot on the territory. After all, I am of the opinion that a museum that does not have friends on the territory is a museum that remains rootless. And we are a museum of the Florentines, we are the collection of the Florentines, we have a collection of artworks made mainly by artists from Florence or the territory.

One last question to conclude. A few days ago ICOM President Suay Aksoy said that, after the pandemic, we will need museums even more than before, and she envisioned a future made up of museums that are closer to their communities and more convinced advocates for a sustainable future. However, this entails rethinking the role of the museum: what do you think the new museum will look like coming out of this pandemic?

It will be a museum that is a bit slowed down, but then it will pick up, and it will be much more digital, collaborative, and close to its audience. Going into more detail, it will be a museum that will retrace some of the old paths, but it will have some new elements: first of all, as mentioned, we will have learned a lot about working with digital and exploiting it more. And at least for the Accademia Gallery, the change will be about digital. As for collaborations (with the territory, with other institutions, with schools and universities), this is something we have always focused on (and we hope to consolidate the relationships that were already in place before, indeed we will have to deepen them), but in this period it is even more important than before, because only if you team up can you get far, and because, for example, a solution that may be good for us may also be useful to others with whom you might share it. I see that there is a lot of desire to collaborate, and to do so with an open attitude, with a willingness to listen and learn from others. In terms of being close to the public, I believe that we will increase initiatives to involve them: we, for example, have created a small informative issue that comes out once a week (the second issue came out these days) and where we explain the “behind the scenes,” because often people do not know what goes on inside a museum. But this happens because we are the ones who don’t communicate and convey it: now is the time to show the public what is behind what they see in the halls, from the maintenance of the halls to the maintenance of the works, from protection to controls. All of these other activities continue even when the museum is closed. And this also serves to arouse interest around what we do.

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