The Joaquim Folch i Torres Library, of the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, has received the distinction of the Sello 2021 del Consejo de Cooperación bibliotecaria, in the category of Specialized Libraries for the project: “Transforming the Gaze to Transform Museographical Discourses: Women Artists in the Museum through the holdings of the Library of the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC)”. This recognition is granted annually by the CCB, the cooperation body of the Ministry of Culture, to libraries that have carried out innovative, original and creative projects that can serve as a reference for other libraries and give visibility to libraries in society.

 

 

The Museum Library is a point of reference for research staff, students and other people interested in the Catalan artistic field. The library supports the research and documentation of museum staff and, at the same time, manages, preserves and disseminates the bibliographic heritage, with the aim of promoting and facilitating access to knowledge for professionals in the art world and the general public.

 

Its collection consists of more than 130,000 volumes and 4,000 titles of art and humanities magazines, where you can consult the most outstanding titles of the modernist and noucentista periods, and the artistic avant-garde in Catalonia. The heritage collection has more than 18,000 volumes and includes works published up to 1939. It consists of original manuscripts by artists and art theorists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, incunabula such as the Nuremberg Chronicle of 1493, as well as bibliophile editions.

 

One of the highlights is the collection of small hand-held catalogues and the press archive, which are documentary collections of interest for research about the country's artistic activity throughout the 20th century. The archive includes a selection of press articles by Catalan artists and exhibitions held in Barcelona during the 20th century. On the other hand, "Els petits catàlegs", a documentary collection on which the project has focused, provide information on art exhibitions held from 1908 to 2006 in Catalonia, Spain and Europe. It contains more than 2,300 archive boxes, including hand catalogues, cards and invitations to exhibitions held in galleries, brochures, leaflets, etc.

 

The award-winning project Transforming the gaze: the visibility of women artists through the collection of the Library of the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya is part of the strategic lines promoted by the museum, and its main objective is to give visibility to the unique collection of small catalogues, to promote research on women artists, to identify women artists active during the twentieth century and to promote non-discrimination against women in the field of artistic creation and production. Among the actions that have been carried out are the creation of digital resources and thematic guides and the realization of virtual and face-to-face exhibitions. It should also be noted that the alliance with the Xarxa de Museus d'Art de Catalunya and the collaboration with the University of Barcelona have made it possible to organize a day lead by artists and professionals from the art world. Dissemination on social media and the writing of posts on the museum's blog have contributed also to the spread of this new gaze.

 

With the impetus of this project, the Biblioteca Joaquim Folch i Torres of the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya contributes to making available to research staff new documentary sources of the twentieth century, related to women artists and the activity of the city of Barcelona that will surely facilitate new studies on the role of women in the art world.

 

Related to this project, the museum library also carried out the virtual exhibition of small catalogues The imprint of women artists in post-war Barcelona. 

 

More information: Library and archive and [email protected]