The Venetian museum launches Together for the PGC, a fundraising campaign to guarantee daily operations and the continuity of the free educational programs that are at the heart of its mission.
I dedicated myself to my collection. A collection means hard work. It was what I wanted to do and I made it my life’s work. I am not an art collector. I am a museum.
Peggy Guggenheim, Peggy Guggenheim and Her Friends
After 13 weeks of mandatory closure, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection is currently experiencing one of the most difficult periods since the museum opened in 1980. The museum houses Peggy Guggenheim’s extraordinary collection of modern art. It is thanks to Guggenheim’s personal commitment that her former home Palazzo Venier dei Leoni boasts one of the most significant collections of 20th-century art with masterpieces by Umberto Boccioni, Alexander Calder, Salvador Dalí, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Leonor Fini, Alberto Giacometti, Grace Hartigan, René Magritte, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Germaine Richier in addition to many other 20th-century artists. The museum’s mission is to preserve the legacy of Peggy Guggenheim through education and the promotion of art as a tool for personal growth and the development of critical thinking. Art is paramount and should remain accessible to everyone.
Due to 86 days of closure, the loss of revenue from the ticket office and the two museum shops amounts to two million euros. For a non-profit organization such as the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, the Italian branch of The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, this means the absence of resources to carry out its educational mission. Therefore, the museum has had a slow restart, opening to the public only on Saturdays and Sundays in June, and on Fridays as well in July, with capped and reduced admissions. The museum staff as well as the public have enthusiastically embraced the reopening, but the limited admissions and opening hours do not solve the problem. The temporary exhibition, Migrating Objects, remains closed, the publication of catalogs has been suspended and the upcoming exhibition schedule cannot be confirmed. The goal is to open the museum 6 days a week so that we may guarantee the continuity of the museum’s free activities and public programs, including Art Talks, Kids Days workshops, activities for the visually impaired and senior citizens, and public programs related to exhibitions, as well as the temporary exhibitions and catalogs. This is the life of the museum and if we believe that “beauty will save the world,” to quote Fyodor Dostoevsky, at this time, the world must save beauty because we cannot do it alone.
This is the reason why the Peggy Guggenheim Collection has launched a special fundraising campaign, Together for the PGC, to ensure that this vast artistic heritage, which has transformed the lives of so many visitors, remains open and accessible to all in the future. The museum has always welcomed a large and loyal community of supporters including families, students, teachers, art lovers, millennials, senior citizens, and those with disabilities. Each visitor has been a fundamental part of the museum’s history. The museum kindly asks for your support with a donation. Even the smallest gesture makes an important impact as the museum begins a new chapter in its history.
Together for the Peggy Guggenheim Collection. Together for art.
To donate, visit the museum website donate.guggenheim-venice.it