The Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya received 837,694 visitors in 2019, a year in which it boosted in a special way the International projection of its collection by organising exhibitions outside its premises, abroad in Japan and Brazil.  Together with the ones held in various Spanish cities, these exhibitions have attracted more than 252,501 visitors.

In 2019, 257,492 people were able to enjoy free-of-charge admission or with discounts in the Museu Nacional. In total, the visitors to the museum in Barcelona and to the exhibitions of the collection organised outside the museum, surpassed one million.  

The museum, which in 2019 presented a new Strategy and Action Plan, closes in this way a strategic cycle by doubling the number of its visitors compared with 2012, and is now focused on boosting its social dimension, with new plans of accessibility and equal access to culture.

The exhibitions

With regard to the exhibitions organised on its own premises, Bermejo. The 15^th century rebel genius, organised in collaboration with the Museo del Prado and the National Gallery of London, was one of the major projects presented by the Museu Nacional in 2019, along with the exhibitions dedicated to Antoni Fabrés or to Aurèlia Muñoz. During 2019, the museum also dedicated a special attention to the fields of comic and photography, with exhibitions such as El Víbora. Comix countercultural, Osamu Tezuka, the God of Manga or the exhibition dedicated to the major Barcelona photographer Oriol Maspons. In total, these exhibitions attracted 214,959 visitors.

Among the international exhibitions it is worth highlighting the success of the exhibition dedicated to Juli González in Brazil and the positive reception of the exhibition about the Modernist Barcelona which can be seen in five cities of Japan and will end its trip in 2020 in Tokyo.

The collection in figures

The collection continues to be the major attraction of the Museu Nacional, which in 2019 introduced some important changes to the modern art collection and to the rooms of art from the postwar and Second Avant-garde.

The museum is working intensely to enrich the different collections by means of acquisitions, donations and deposits and especially for the formation of the collection of art of the postwar period and the Second Avant-garde which will allow the museum’s narrative to be extended to the decade of the nineteen-seventies of the last century. As a result of this work, last year 159 works were incorporated into its collection, and with 51 were works by women artists: Mari Chordá, Aurèlia Muñoz, Laura Pérez Vernetti, Marta Guerrero, Isa Feu, Marta Clavé and the photographers Aleydis Rispa and Cristina Muñoz.

The museum has also been carrying out a lot of work on the diffusion and projection of its collection by means of the participation with loans and deposits to exhibitions and collections, both national and international.  In 2019 477 works were loaned to 50 different institutions, of these 271 travelled to foreign museums.

All these projects involve a huge amount work in terms of registration, conservation and restoration work. Thus, in 2019 the Conservation and Restoration Department carried out an intervention or restored a total of 730 works from the museum's collections.

Public programmes

The museum develops an extensive programme of activities in the field of education and for different types of public, which includes concerts, cycles of talks, theatre sessions, film screenings, etc. Throughout the year 74,484 people participated in these activities as a whole.

The Museu Nacional has intensified its participation in some of the most important cultural events in the city of Barcelona, such as the Loop Festival, the Festival Grec and has participated in a TNC (The National Theatre of Catalonia) production. These collaborations join others already established with leading institutions such as the Filmoteca or the Esmuc (The Catalan College of Music), creating a network of interrelations between the different arts.

The public

22% of the visitors of the museum come from Barcelona, another 22% from Catalonia and 3% from the rest of Spain.  Among the foreign visitors it is worth highlighting the visitors from the USA (9%), France (6%) the United Kingdom (4%) or Russia (4%).

The Friends of the Museum continue growing and have now reached 3,193 people who provide support for the museum and participate in the different activities organised by the Foundation.

The environment and social responsibility

The museum has renewed its two certifications IQNet SR10 and ISO 14.001, and is always working from the perspective of social responsibility and sustainability.  The environment is a central issue and during 2019 continued with measures of savings and improvements that have allowed 70% of the waste to be segregated and to continue with measures of energy saving.