All together for the MA*GA: re-opening on 23rd

 The Museum is re-opening on 23 November, with the exhibition, Artisti per il MA*GA (on until 22 December 2013), a project that has involved 180 artists, including some big names, who have each donated one of their works to the Premio Nazionale Arti Visive Città di Gallarate (the National Award for Visual Arts of the Town of Gallarate), which will help fund part of the future work at the MA*GA Museum.

"When institutions join forces, this is what they achieve. We’re very proud that, just nine months after the fire, the Museum can re-open, albeit only partially," the Regional Councillor for Culture, Cristina Cappellini, said during a press conference on the re-opening of the MA*GA, on Saturday, 23 November.

"The MA*GA Museum in Gallarate has been a priority from the very first days of my mandate," Ms Cappellini continued. "It’s one of the many important cultural institutions that Lombardy Regional Council immediately wanted to support and protect. I’m sure that the MA*GA will immediately go back to being a place of cultural excellence, not only for Varese Province, but also for the whole of Lombardy."

The solidarity that was expressed immediately after the tragic event came not only from the people, art lovers and those who work in this sector, but also from institutions, first of all, from the Town Council of Gallarate, with a grant of €150,000, from Lombardy Region, with a contribution of €150,000, and from the Cariplo Foundation, who donated €250,000. This money made it possible to start the renovation work and immediately recover the areas that were not structurally damaged.

"The Museum is re-opening with the exhibition of works that many artists have donated, as a contribution to the rebuilding. We must acknowledge their solidarity, together with that of the Regional Office of Culture and the Cariplo Foundation, who have made two large contributions to rebuild the museum premises; we should also acknowledge that it is not only the local council that is involved," said Gallarate’s town councillor for culture, Sebastiano Nicosia.

"These nine months have been very difficult," Emma Zanella, the director of the Museum, confirmed, "and the work we’ve carried out was made possible only thanks to a network of relationships and mutual trust. The organisation, Premio Gallarate, was the first to come forward, with the collection of signatures to prevent the work of the MA*GA from stopping, and to collect the works donated by the artists to raise funds for the Museum."

"The idea is to organise an exhibition that will enable the MA*GA to re-open with an informal event that will give the impression of the museum as a place that is genuinely open to collaboration from the local community,” explained Giovanni Orsini, the head of Premio Gallarate. “The works on display will be sold, even for a modest contribution; the money collected by Premio Gallarate will be put into a fund, to enable the development of the MA*GA’s work in 2014, and satisfy the need to renovate the building. And so, WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS is a sign that, as it has since 1949, Premio Gallarate strongly supports the presence of a local museum dedicated to contemporary art, and that this museum, the MA*GA, is supported and embraced by a large community of artists, administrators, but also by art and culture lovers, primarily from Gallarate and the region.”

“We haven’t stopped! WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS is one leg on the MA*GA’s journey,” said Giacomo Buonanno, the chairman of the Silvio Zanella Foundation. “The journey was made more difficult by the fire on 14 February, but the museum has never stopped. In spite of the difficulties related to not having our own headquarters, the Foundation has continued all of its activities, by relocating them appropriately to places throughout the reference area. The collection was presented first at the Triennale, in Milan, then in the Villa Reale, in Monza; the education activities were carried out in schools and on premises provided by other cultural associations in the town of Gallarate, and in the surrounding towns and villages; the works in the permanent collection were put temporarily in the rooms of the former Gallery of Modern Art, in Viale Milano, Gallarate, which is being used as a warehouse.”

“The Cariplo Foundation usually funds projects,” Dario Bolis explained, “but this was an emergency, and we felt we had to give concrete support.”