The Board of Trustees of the Museum, made up of the Generalitat de Catalunya, the Ministry of Culture and Sport, Barcelona City Council and various personalities representing civil society, has unanimously agreed to start the procedures for the public bid for the project of enlargement and of the services of drafting the basic and executive projects, as well as endowing the museum with the necessary mechanisms to make this action possible both in terms of the technical aspects as well as in the conceptual questions.

The calendar foreseen for the project envisages the development of the feasibility and museography plans and architectural projects during 2022 and 2023, and for carrying out the public bid for the final project at the end of 2023 or the beginning of 2024.

The Museum’s Strategic Plan fixes 2029 as its horizon for the completion of the works, the centenary of the International Exposition, the development of Montjuïc and the construction of the Palau Nacional. The extension to the Victòria Eugènia Pavilion will be an important transformation and will allow a global rethinking of the museum, the spaces, the storytelling and their scope.

The Board of Trustees has also decided to renew the director, Pepe Serra, for a period of five years, and has made a very positive assessment of the work carried out during the period as head of the museum. Of particular note is the social and cultural position achieved, which has led to a significant increase in visitors, reaching close to 900,000 in 2019, compared to 400,000 in 2012, at the beginning of his term. During these years the museum has organised more than 70 exhibition projects, renewed the presentation of the collections of modern art and Renaissance and Baroque; it has worked on the formation of the post-war and second avant-garde collection and around a hundred projects in collaboration with other museums and artistic, educational, scientific and social organisations. Another highlight is the growth of the collection, with numerous acquisitions and donations thanks to strategic agreements.

The Board of Trustees also wants to highlight the creation of the Network of Art Museums, which has gone from having only three sections in Catalonia to being made up of 22 museums from all over the country, as well as the deployment of a policy of travelling exhibitions throughout the State and its international presence.