Sunday at the museum

By means of the Province’s Council Decision no. 1496/2015 (September 2015), Trentino offers visitors free admission to its so-called Provincial Museums, on the first Sunday of every month.

The Provincial Museums are the following:

- Muse (Science Museum), with the exhibition Genoma umano. Quello che ci rende unici (Human genome. What makes us unique), looks at questions profoundly affecting us all that are today the subject of important and promising biological research.

The Muse is a widespread network of museums and local offices at provincial level (and beyond), so also its satellite museums Gianni Caproni Aeronautical Museum and the Geological Museum of the Dolomites in Predazzo offer free admission.  

- Mart - Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Rovereto - which includes the Casa d’arte futurista Depero -. The Mart is one of the most important museums in Europe, and its current exhibition, Passion. 12 Italian Art Projects, includes more than 250 works, featuring masterpieces by the foremost modern and contemporary artists: Medardo Rosso, Carlo Carrà, Giorgio de Chirico, Alberto Savinio, Massimo Campigli, Felice Casorati, Renato Guttuso, Ettore Colla, Agostino Bonalumi, and Giuseppe Uncini.

- Galleria Civica - Civic art gallery with the exhibition A tu per tu. Mauro De Carli e Piermario Dorigatti (Face-to-Face. Mauro De Carli and Piermario Dorigatti). Master and pupil, Mauro De Carli (1944-2008) and Piermario Dorigatti (1954) are the protagonists of a dialogue between sculpture and painting that highlights the elements of continuity along with the differences in the work of the two Trentino artists. 

- Castello del Buonconsiglio (Buonconsiglio Castle) and, for the latter’s other five sites, see their respective opening season and times: Castel Thun, Castel Beseno, Castello di Stenico, Castel Caldes. The Buonconsiglio Castle is, alone, worth visiting for its historic and cultural heritage, as well as for its exhibition itinerary, which has been recently enriched and renovated; its current exhibition, “Colori fluttuanti: la carta marmorizzata tra Oriente e Occidente” ("Floating colours: the marbled paper between the East and the West"), retraces the history of this technique coming from the East, which spread in Turkey and, starting from the sixteenth century, throughout Europe.

- and the Museo degli usi e costumi della gente trentina (Trentino Folklife Museum), which is one of the most distinguished Italian museums of popular traditions.

In addition to them, also the museums run by the Department for Cultural Heritage offer free admission:

the S.A.S.S. Spazio Archeologico Sotterraneo del Sas - Tridentum (Tridentum S.A.S.S. - Underground Archaeological Site SASS) hosts the exhibition Amazzonia. Le custodi della Biodiversità (Amazonia. The Guardians of Biodiversity), 90 photographic prints by Beatrice De Blasi (head of education of Mandacarù Onlus during two missions in the Ecuadorian Amazonia between 2016 and 2018);

the Museo diocesano tridentino (The Tridentine diocesan museum) hosts the exhibition Terra Mala. Viaggio nella Terra dei Fuochi (Terra Mala. Journey to the land of Fires). This photo-essay by Stefano Schirato recounts the complex reality of the area of the Campania region comprised between the provinces of Caserta and Naples, known as “Terra dei Fuochi” [Land of Fires]. For more than thirty years, millions of tonnes of toxic waste have been disposed of illegally in this territory, causing the largest environmental disaster in Italy.

the Gallerie di Piedicastello invites everybody to reflect on the Great War on the occasion of its centenary with the exhibition L'ultimo anno: 1917-1918 (The final year: 1917-1918), an exhibition dedicated to the Great War on the Italian-Austrian front in its most critical and crucial moment. It focuses on the last stages of the war, from the point of view of its protagonists: soldiers and civilians.

the Museo delle Palafitte di Fiavé (Fiavè Pile dwelling Museum),

the Museo Retico (Rhaetian Museum) of Sanzeno; 

the Fondazione museo civico di Rovereto (Rovereto civic museum foundation) explains the phases of the moon-conquest with the Apollo mission and the space race between the two big powers at that time, United States and Soviet Union, with the exhibition La Luna. E poi? (The moon. And then?)

Since museums often schedule exhibition openings or other interesting events on the first Sunday of every month, here's an unmissable event:

- the Museo degli usi e costumi della gente trentina (Trentino Folklife Museum) presents eTNo – Trentino Ethnography Festival 2019 which, in its seventh year, is a welcome event in early spring: it spreads the voices of the valleys, which find their raison d'être in the activitiy of the Ethnographic Museum of San Michele all'Adige. Here is the presentation to the public of the many activities that revolve around the enhancement of the local territorial culture: ancient crafts, good food, biodiversity, educational workshops, artisan knowledge, small museums, stories, music, choirs, folk dances, figure theatre, poetry ... In a word, everything that the territory can tell of its past and especially of its present.

Last but not least, other museums in Trentino join the “Sunday at the museum” initiative, among which the MAG - Museo Alto Garda (MAG - Alto Garda Museum) and the Fondazione museo storico del Trentino (Trentino history museum foundation). Please see their websites.