MA*GA Museum
Museum History
The MA*GA Museum is one of Italy's most important contemporary art museums. The museum's identity is intertwined with the history of the Gallarate Prize, founded in 1949 and still active today. The Museum, officially established in 1966 under the name Civica Galleria d'Arte Moderna di Gallarate, was in fact born with the works acquired during the first eight editions of the Prize. A turning point in the museum's history came in 2009, when the city of Gallarate established the 'Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea Silvio Zanella' Foundation, whose founding partners were the City Council itself, the Ministry of Culture, and co-founding partners the Lombardy Region and the Province of Varese. In March 2010, the Museum acquired the name MA*GA - Gallarate Museum of Art and inaugurated its new museum premises, which, thanks to its large spaces, promotes a varied and open cultural proposal to offer a cognitive support to the Museum's heritage and to make the public participate and pay attention to the themes highlighted, denounced and expressed by the art of our days.
In the fifteen years of the Foundation's life, a series of relevant projects has characterised the museum, in a perspective of constant attention to the artistic culture of our country, also in dialogue with prestigious international institutions, both in a historical sense and through a constant look at the contemporary.
A look, this, that opens up to multiple areas of contemporary culture, from literature to the performing arts, from design to fashion. An example of this multidisciplinary approach is the Sala Arazzi Ottavio Missoni.
A museum recognised by the Lombardy Region since 2004 and a member of AMACI since 2007, since 2018 MA*GA has been recognised by the MIC Cultural Institute of National Significance and by the Lombardy Region Recognised Museum, Participatory Subject.
From 2021, together with the City of Gallarate, it opens HIC - Hub of the Cultural Institutes of the City of Gallarate in which a new large library, study and research space flanks the exhibition spaces, in an innovative perspective of knowledge inclusion and interdisciplinarity.
In 2023 the Italia 2050 Research Centre is founded.
The Foundation
The Fondazione Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea Silvio Zanella, established on 30 November 2009 by the City of Gallarate and the Ministry of Culture as founding members, and by the Lombardy Region and the Province of Varese as co-founding members, takes its name from the creator and first director of the Museum.
Inserted as a public entity in the ISTAT, the Foundation curates, manages, enhances and increases the contemporary art collections of the City of Gallarate and its museum, and supports the development of important artistic and curatorial projects; pays particular attention to accessibility and educational projects; dialogues with companies to increase collaboration between cultural and entrepreneurial realities; contributes to the establishment of cultural projects in a network with other prestigious institutions aimed at broad territorial enhancement.
Premio Gallarate
The National Prize for Visual Arts of the City of Gallarate is an institution that since 1949, the year of its foundation, has marked the cultural landscape of Italian art. Its national and international relevance is documented not only by the importance of the participants in its twenty-six editions, both as critics and curators, from Roberto Longhi to Lea Vergine, and as artists, from Emilio Vedova to Gianni Colombo, from Carol Rama to Grazia Varisco , but also from a series of important initiatives: national and international exhibitions and moments of study, hosted by institutions such as the Milan Triennale or the Italian Cultural Institute in London.
About us
Città di Gallarate
Ministero della Cultura
Co-Founding Members
Regione Lombardia
Provincia di Varese
President
Mario Lainati
Vice-president
Luigi Mascheroni
Director
Emma Zanella
Board of management
Giuseppe Armocida
Glauco Cavaciuti
Marina Figini
Luigi Mascheroni
Auditor
Guido Senaldi
Technical and scientific committee
Andrea Cassani, Presidente
Roberto Delodovici
Lindsay Ruth Harris
Paolo Alberto Lamberti
Giovanni Orsini
Emma Zanella
Conservation Department
conservazione@museomaga.it
Alessandro Castiglioni, senior curator and deputy director
Laura Carrù, Collections coordinator
Daniela Costantini, Cataloguer
Davide Fratoni, Digitization of audio-video archives
Exhibitions, Events and Communication
mostre@museomaga.it
Vittoria Broggini, Conservatore curator
comunicazione@museomaga.it
Federica Crespi, Communication
Monica Faccini, Logistics and fittings
social@museomaga.it
Erika La Rosa, Social media management
Heritage Education and Higher Education
didattica@museomaga.it
Lorena Giuranna, Head
Marika Brocca
Francesca Checchi
Elena Scandroglio
with the collaboration of
Elena Borri
Marketing, Private Events
eventi@museomaga.it
Martina Colombo
Special Projects Art and Enterprise
corporate@museomaga.it
Francesca Chiara
Archivi del Contemporaneo
archividelcontemporaneo@museomaga.it
Monica Faccini
Secretarial and administration staff
amministrazione@museomaga.it
Monica Colombo
Marina Bernacchi
Security and reception
Giacomo Zaniboni, Head
Monica Ghiraldini
Sofia Mele
Michela Morelli
Alberto Vernale
Accrochage
Giacomo Zaniboni
Bookshop
Marina Bianchi
Ticket office
biglietteria@museomaga.it
Laura Zocchi
TicketOne.it
Cleaning services
Anastasiia Shnaiderman
Design studio
MMG S.r.l., Gallarate
Press office
CLP Relazioni Pubbliche, Milano
IT Services
Infocia S.r.l., Busto Arsizio
Tax Advisor
Studio Trotti, Busto Arsizio
Labor consultant
Cepas S.r.l. STP, Busto Arsizio
MA*GABar
La Contea di Simone Colombo
Surveillance service
I.V.N.G. S.p.A., Gallarate
Photo Credits
Miriam Broggini, Marco Guariglia, Roberto Marossi, Matteo Donati, Fabrizio Marchesi, Walter Capelli, Marco Marangoni, Giovara Tecnifoto Gallarate
Video production
VideoForArt
Universal Civil Service
Alice Arpilli
Margherita Bascialla
Paolo Benedetti
Chiara Fagnoni
Greta Menzaghi
Chiara Prandoni
Marta Radaelli
Alice Maria Gaia Sammartino
Diana Sgreccia
Chiara Valerio
Auser for MA*GA
Paola Pastorelli, Responsabile
Marina Bianchi
Fiorenza Bartolini
Donatella Bresciani
Franca Ermelinda Caso
Valentino Cerasani
Giorgio Gallivanoni
Enrico Guerra
Isabella Martinelli
Alice Massi
Francesco Picone
Luciana Pozzi
Franca Nerini
Alessandra Ricciardi
Maria Teresa Saielli
Maria Elena Solbiati