Brera Art Gallery reopens with many new features. Free admission until fall, "it's our thanks to the city"

The Pinacoteca di Brera reopens to the public on Tuesday, June 9, with a great new feature: the Milanese museum venue will offer free admission for a must-book visit that will be valid throughout the summer, replicable several times.

“The free admission is our way of saying thank you to the city, of being grateful,” said director James Bradburne. “If Brera is in the heart of Milan, the Milanese are in the heart of Brera. And it is to them that we address our thanks: for having never ideally abandoned our halls, for having made us feel their support through the website and social pages, for having helped provide us with valuable insights into their needs and perceptions in view of the reopening, by participating in large numbers in a survey available on our website. Ultimately, for sharing in that ”cultural resistance“ that we undertook in the aftermath of the lockdown: not a response to contingency, but a condition of the spirit, which will accompany us even when the museum is open.”

Indeed, even after the reopening, all the online initiatives that were key during the forced closure will continue. In recent months, the museum has reinvented its cultural offerings toward an increasingly in-depth enjoyment of art guided by a greater awareness and a slower, more thoughtful gaze. “This is not the time to rebuild destructive practices, but to start over to create a new paradigm that is more authentic, sustainable, and environmentally friendly,” the director continues. “We can return to the true mission of the museum and restore its magical experiential quality to the visit.”

Visitors will be able to access the Pinacoteca with an online reservation, so as to quota the number of people in the rooms at once. A chance to see the masterpieces in small groups and interact with the works for longer to enhance the museum experience. An integral part will be activities to be conducted before and after the visit. With a view to the relationship between the Pinacoteca and its city, useful information will be posted on pinacotecabrera.org regarding businesses in the Brera district, which has been hard hit by the economic crisis due to the health emergency. The Pinacoteca intends to be a nerve center: it will be able to live only if the entire neighborhood is reborn.

It is possible to book online, from the brerabooking.org platform, a personalized visit, indicating age and possible presence of children: based on the data recorded, you will receive after a few minutes a link that will refer to the tools for preparing and supporting the visit designed for a visitor with specific characteristics. This is Brera Box, a “gift package” that represents a significant update of the Pinacoteca visit, made possible by the potential of online and more direct knowledge of the public.

Theeducational offer will thus be updated toward a more participatory attitude. The visitor will become the curator of his or her own museum tour, will be guided through the website in the construction of educational tools and the collection of useful materials for discovery. The visit proper to the museum will become the moment of revelation, where it is possible to compare the activity prepared at home with direct experience, but also the moment to record one’s impressions. A number of recommended audio-guided tour routes will also be available by downloading the izi.TRAVEL app for free. The visiting experience will also be able to continue outside the physical space of the museum: by returning to the website, visitors will find proposals for in-depth study and participation in the life of the Pinacoteca through sharing their own ideas(Brera Ascolta).

On the occasion of the five-hundredth anniversary of Raphael’s death, from September the Pinacoteca will offer an excursus on the installations of the Wedding of the Virgin from 1806 to 1977, finding further development in the reconstruction of the installation conceived in 1976 by Bruno Munari. An itinerary that will ideally continue with the Ninth Perspectives Dialogue, a virtual exhibition that will place side by side the Marriage of the “divine painter” with the Chinese scroll Journey on the River during the Qingming, made by Zhang Zeduan at the time of the Song Dynasty (960-1279): an unprecedented and evocative comparison that will allow us to reflect on ways of representing time and space in different historical and cultural contexts.

The museum will also continue to offer its music program online, with performances by young masters from Milan’s Civica Scuola di Musica Claudio Abbado every third Thursday of the month. Also planned for the fall are a concert dedicated to Johannes Brahms and one aimed at families and children, which will bring together the Ricordi heritage with the genius of Bruno Munari.
Finally, the now traditional appointment with the Premio Rosa di Brera, awarded annually to an outstanding supporter of the Pinacoteca, will be renewed on Sept. 21.

The reopening of the Pinacoteca will take place in compliance with all the necessary safety measures, from the use of a face mask to interpersonal distancing of at least one meter, to a one-way visiting route. Some rooms with smaller dimensions have been excluded and some are visible only by remaining behind the barriers. In addition, the maximum time in the Pinacoteca will be one and a half hours.

Public opening hours will also change for the first few weeks: Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 9.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m. (last entry at 11.50 a.m.); Thursday through Sunday from 2 to 6.30 p.m. (last entry at 5 p.m.).

For more info: www.pinacotecabrera.org

Pictured is the new layout of Room XXIX. Ph. Credit James O’Mara

Brera Art Gallery reopens with many new features. Free admission until fall, "it's our thanks to the city"

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