6.6 - Vatican Museums - Barbara Jatta, Director

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From the course by Università Bocconi

Arts and Heritage Management

253 ratings

Università Bocconi

Arts and Heritage Management

253 ratings

Today cultural institutions are facing important dilemmas in many aspects of their management. Over the past decades, a new figure has emerged that of the art manager. Imagine you went to work every day to connect artists with audiences, vision with reality, and money with a mission. That is what managers in the arts do, they play an essential role in transforming the minds, lives, and communities through creative expression. This course has been conceptualized to address the need of skills and techniques to help professionals and managers in running art and cultural institutions. Learning Objectives There are three objectives to this course. First, we will approach the biggest issue cultural institutions face, the coexistence of managers and curators and giving evidence as to when, how, and why they can get along. Second, we will focus on some contemporary facets on what is means to manage a cultural institution and what cultural managers should expect and be able to face. And lastly, we will provide models and tools to design and implement appropriate courses of action to satisfy customers (visitors and audiences) and build an advantage over the competition. Course Structure The course is divided into six sections. Five sections are dedicated to specific aspects and themes of managing cultural institutions, while the sixth section is dedicated to individual interviews of prominent cultural institution managers on specific topics. The involvement of professionals and managers gives an incredible value to the learning experience of this course. Each module is paired with a quiz and discussion forums to reflect on the variety of the heritage management, its complexity, and the power of the network that we will build together during the course. Successful completion of the quizzes is required for a course certificate as explained in the Grading Policy page. If you love art and want to make an impact in this unique and fantastic sector, this course will support you in understanding the peculiarities of this sector and how to leverage on its tools to make a bigger impact. Look forward to meeting you online! Acknowledgements: Vatican Museums: www.museivaticani.va Cenacolo Vinciano: www.beniculturali.it/mibac/export/MiBAC/sito-MiBAC/Contenuti/MibacUnif/Eventi/visualizza_asset.html_1283837989.html (ITA) FAI (Fondo Ambiente Italiano): eng.fondoambiente.it MUVE (Fondazione Musei Civici Venezia): www.visitmuve.it The National Trust: www.nationaltrust.org.uk The Archeological Site of Paestum: www.museopaestum.beniculturali.it whc.unesco.org/en/list/842 Museo dell'Opera del Duomo (Florence): www.museumflorence.com Museo del Violino: www.museodelviolino.org _________________________________ Disclaimer - Since some of the videos are conducted with those whose native language is not English, we have decided to sometimes preserve their more emphatic speech to keep a tighter match between the audio and subtitles.

From the lesson

MEET THE MANAGERS

Hear what managers have to share about how they deal with the main topics of this field: A collection of best practices told directly from the people responsible for these success cases.

6.1 Meet the managers0:51

6.2 Reliving the Past in the Present | Archeological Site of Paestum - Gabriel Zuchtriegel, Director14:36

6.3 An Example of Virtuosity | Fondazione Musei Civici Venezia - Mattia Agnetti, General Secretary7:18

6.4A FAI Contemporary Art and Collection | Villa Litta Panza - Anna Bernardini, Director3:56

6.4B FAI Fundraising and International Networks | Villa Necchi Campiglio - Alessandra Varisco, International Fundraising Manager11:26

6.4C FAI Fundraising and CRM - Patrice Simonnet, Head of Individual Fundraising7:50

6.5 Research and Promotion as Key Vector for Success | Cenacolo Vinciano - Chiara Rostagno, Director13:18

6.6 - Vatican Museums - Barbara Jatta, Director12:44

6.6A Vatican Museums - Antonio Paolucci, Former Director8:53

6.6B Vatican Museums - Rosangela Mancusi, Head of Multimedia and Web Office10:49

6.6C Vatican Museums - Anastasia Biller, Head of the Office of Public Relations and Services13:41

6.6D Vatican Museums - Luca della Giovampaola, Head of Technology Support9:38

6.6E Vatican Museums - Diego Ortuso, Head of Museum Security Staff7:50

6.7 Museo dell' Opera del Duomo (Florence) - Fr. Timothy Verdon, Director4:56

6.8 National Trust - Simon Murray, Senior Director3:47

Meet the Instructors

Andrea Rurale
Director
Master in Arts Management and Administration (MAMA)

Barbara Jatta is the director of the Vatican Museums. Thank you for being with us and hosting us here.

The main question that I would like to ask you regards this institution. The Vatican Museums are one

of the most important cultural institutions in the world, visited by six million people

a year, and with an extraordinary collection of masterpieces; however they were not created

nor invented as proper museums; so what were the actual

challenges and actions that were implemented during the years in order to welcome so many people to this place in a safe

and appropriate environment? As you mentioned, they were not,

at least in the beginning in 1506, established as museums, but throughout the years,

some parts and collections of the museums were established as museums, like the Pio-Clementino

museum in the end of eighteenth century and the Braccio Nuovo

were specifically created to be displays of items. Of course, the corridors which bring you to the Sistine Chapel

and Raphael's Rooms are part of the Papal Palaces so it is really complicated. There were many different challenges

and Raphael Rooms are part of the Papal Palaces so it is really complicated. There were many different challenges

and there are still some challenges. I can tell you that the new entranced opened in the year 2000

was one of them. Of course, now we have the old entrance that was established in

1929 after the Lateran Treaty which established the opening of the Vatican

Museums to the world. It is now used as an exit;

and a new entrance, with a new hall was receiving thousands and thousands of visitors every hour was opened in

the year 2000. This was the major challenge. Yesterday I met the tour operators

and guides of the Vatican Libraries explaining what there will be in the future, the different

itineraries which they can use

not the normal one, but uniques ones for the moment to go to the Sistine Chapel because, of course,

everybody wants to go to the Sistine Chapel. I do well understand this,

but there are parts of the Museums which are so impressive in terms of art, culture, history,

and faith, and it is really important that people are aware of these parts. I can easily mention

a Etruscan collection of the museums,

but I can also mention the ethnological museum. The ethnological museum has

80,000 art objects which come from all

different cultures and continents which where brought to

Pope Pius XI in the '20s to be a sort of missionary exhibit which then was turned into

a permanent collection, and we are now working on that and people

can come and visit, of course, the Sistine Chapel, Raphael's Rooms

and the Borgia Apartments which are the places to be, but really

there are so many other parts, and that is the challenge we are working on.

Well regarding the many people who every day visit Sistine Chapel

and most known parts of the Museums, we are actually facing a sort of

dualism, on one side preserving cultural heritage and on the other side making it available

and accessible above all for the people,

and this is the challenge that all the cultural institutions face: preserving or valorizing,

or hopefully putting them together. What are you doing in this sense? I do well understand that we cannot stop people

coming to the Vatican Museums because this is a place of culture, history, and human heritage

coming to the Vatican Museums because this is a place of culture, history, and human heritage

as you mentioned, so what we are working on is to better preserve the floors and spaces where the visitors are,

who number more than six million nowadays. In the first three months of 2017

we had 150,000 more

people than the other years, so really, this is a big issue and so now since a few years ago we have been working on

maintenance and preservation. Of course as you know, we have seven

different wonderful kinds of restoration laboratories of different kinds of materials. More than one hundred people working

permanently here and they double as external people working on restoration

and perseveration of this material. What I can also tell you is that we have a group of restorers who work all day long

from January to December to remove the dust,

from January to December to remove the dust,

and check all the different parts of the Museums. This is very costly I can tell you even the cost of this

is more than 350,000 euros only for these people who are doing that,

and this is only this company that does that for us, but this is very important,

and I say this, because I think it is very important to know

that and you cannot find this in any other Italian,

European, or international institution, because they do not have palaces from

the 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries being part of the Museums, so really the Vatican Museums are

unique in this sense. So, we are really working on daily maintainence

in terms of restoration and preservation,

and keeping the dust out. We will start in January from the Sistine Chapel, so every evening from 7:00

when the visitors are going away in the time of the year

when we have less people coming—generally January-February is the low time—and

we do not have open visits during the evening. We have a special machine which goes up to the

ceiling from 7:00 in the afternoon to 11:00 in the evening to keep the dust off

the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel; and this is only a part,

and then we have this hall receives it, I do not remember in which month, but I suppose in March or April,

and this keeps going around to all the museums.

This also goes into the stocks and deposits. In terms of the valorization, I mean,

the Vatican Museums are actually promoting themselves

but is there anything particular that you think is quite important in the promotion?

So, you just mentioned that the non-Sistine Chapel, the other collections except for that? We now have

a new website. You are probably aware of that and the new website is

a three years' time study of our staff

and colleagues of the different disciplines on the different collections of the museum

and the new website is a very important—way to interact—exactly with people, tourists,

students, and scholars. We have an online catalog of all the items we have on display

and this is very important in my opinion because no other Italian museum has this, of course,

foreign museums have this,

but I think it is very important in terms of knowing what is in the collection, not only the description of

the general museum,

but the description of each item, its dating, name, measurements, and materials so you can prepare your visit

before coming and you can go in deeply after having visited

and, I speak in terms of a normal school or a high level of university class and level,

really, the new website is a wonderful challenge in terms of

scholarly, student, and visitor options.

scholarly, student, and visitor options.

Well and the last point which I would like to ask you is about the future. What are the challenges for the next ten to

fifteen years given this

trend which you just mentioned in terms of increasing? You are forecasting a sort of increase in terms of numbers.

You are forecasting a sort of growth,

and actually in terms of big projects and/or issues? We have several issues,

I will not speak about fifteen years from now, my contract is five years long, hopefully if the Pope,

and if the cardinal president would like to renovate after five years,

But I will work in middle-term, so five years time, we have several projects in terms of dealing, of course, there are

scholarly projects in terms of research on different collections from the Egyptian one to the contemporary art one,

and this is in terms of scholars. In terms of

arriving visitors, we are really working seriously on the different paths they can take. We have a very big issue,

but I cannot tell you it now, next year I will tell you it because it is something that is under study, that will

probably solve major problems of

visitors arriving in the Museums, but also the idea of opening, for example, the Lapidary Gallery

which is a part that, in terms of scholarly attention,

is, as the Vatican Museums, we are competent,

but it is part of the Papal Palace, and Pope Francis is not living in the palace

and so that will be easier, there will be another way to arrive to the Sistine Chapel so we can split a big line into two,

so we are working on that and also with the idea

of the exit, not only to the basilica, but also to St. Peter's Square directly from the Scala Regia

is a challenge. Of course it is a question of terms and diplomacy.

The Vatican city-state and Vatican institution are very delicate in terms of diplomacy

I must say. You have to

deal with different institutions. The Museums, of course, are one of the institutions out of several institutions which are part

of the Vatican city-state.

I am pretty sure that

we will arrive to these—solutions. Well thank you very much Barbara Jatta,

the director of the Vatican Museums.

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