On March 8th, at 6 pm, Karole P. B. Vail, director of the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, will lead visitors through Palazzo Venier dei Leoni on an exceptional virtual guided tour on the You Tube channel of the museum.
On March 8, 2020, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection closed its doors for 89 days to prevent the spread of Covid-19. On Monday at 6 pm, exactly one year later after the first lockdown and on International Women’s Day, Karole P. B. Vail, director of the museum and granddaughter of Peggy Guggenheim will lead visitors through Palazzo Venier dei Leoni on a guided tour on You Tube.
The virtual visit promises to embrace the themes of INSPIRATION, SUSTAINABILITY and PRESENT which were articulated in a recently launched manifesto for renewal in an effort to continue to listen to and dialogue with the public on site, remotely and on social media.
“The Collection must continue to be a place where knowledge of the past can be a source of reflection and inspiration so that we may build our present and our future” says Ms. Vail. “A place that, regardless of the timeframe that separates us from the artists and works of art in the museum, can transmit shared values and visions that continue to inspire the times in which we live. Considering the social role and cultural sustainability of the museum, the visit is a gift for everyone, in the name of inclusion and accessibility.
Therefore, March 8th has a double symbolic value for the Collection: exactly one year after the first lockdown which completely upset our relationship to art, the museum reaffirms its societal commitment by remembering how crucial it is to support the process of reducing inequalities and securing gender equality. This ongoing commitment to educate and raise awareness of such current urgent issues is reflected in our over three-year long collaboration with ASviS, the Italian Alliance for Sustainable Development, which is responsible for promoting the 17 Goals of the United Nations 2030 agenda. This visit, which will be broadcast on International Women's Day, touches on three of the 17 Goals: Goal 4 for quality education, Goal 5 for gender equality and Goal 10 for the reduction of inequalities.
Ms. Vail begins with an introduction of the patron of the arts and collector Peggy Guggenheim who left her native New York in the early 1920s to travel to Europe, where her adventure with the protagonists of the artistic avant-garde and the beginnings of her legendary collection began. We then follow Ms. Vail inside the museum and become acquainted with works by Alexander Calder, Tancredi Parmeggiani, Pablo Picasso, Gino Severini, Vasily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, as well as by Fernand Léger, René Magritte, Max Ernst, Joan Miró, Jackson Pollock, Emilio Vedova, and Marino Marini. A twenty-minute journey to get a glimpse into some the masterpieces that Guggenheim collected during her lifetime. A priceless heritage, which Guggenheim generously shared with the public by opening her home several afternoons a week starting in 1951, as she was convinced that art should be within everyone’s reach. And thus, the museum pursues its founder’s mission by offering this experience, which raises art to an essential resource and is therefore accessible to all.
We hope you enjoy the visit!