17 Oct 2014
Morocco launches first major museum since 1956
BY Tom Anstey
The first major museum to be built in Morocco since it gained independence from France in 1956 has opened in Rabat.
Showcasing modern and contemporary works by Moroccan artists, the Musée Mohammed VI d'Art Moderne et Contemporain (Mohammed VI Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art) – now partnered with the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC and the Louvre in Paris – had been under construction for a decade following a US$20m (€15.6m, £12.4m) investment.
Inspired by traditional moorish architecture, the three-storey, 9,400sq m (101,000sq ft) museum – designed by Moroccan firm Karim Chakor Architecte – includes spaces for permanent collections and temporary exhibitions, housing an art and multimedia library, education department, auditorium and restaurant. The museum’s first exhibition, entitled 1914–2014: 100 Years of Creation, includes works by 150 Moroccan artists, illustrating the variety of Moroccan art over the past hundred years.
The museum is the first in Morocco dedicated entirely to modern and contemporary art, and the first public institution in the country to meet international museological standards. The museum is aiming to cover the evolution of Moroccan artistic creation in the visual arts, from the start of the 20th century to today.
The museum was part-funded by the Moroccan government’s Ministry of Culture, which contributed US$5.1m (€4m, £3.2m), with the remainder coming from outside investment and donations.
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