Il Museo Nazionale di Ravenna - Luogo del Contemporaneo

The National Museum of Ravenna is housed in the former monastery of St. Vitale and holds prestigious evidence from early Christian and Byzantine monuments. Two splendid cloisters house the lapidary, with important marble artifacts, and in the Refectory a cycle of frescoes by Pietro da Rimini are in display. The second floor houses the largest collection of applied arts in Romagna, from medieval textiles to Renaissance bronzes.
In 2020, a new room dedicated to contemporary art was inaugurated in the former monastic spaces on the first floor, with works donated at the end of temporary exhibitions in the last decade or acquired over time through specific projects. The donated works testify to the close relationship established with the Museum, which covers the dual role of a place of memory but also a stimulus for contemporary creativity for both the artists involved and the users themselves.
Since 2021, Mare Magnum Nostrum, a project by artist Gea Casolaro, curated by L. Regano, promoted by General Directorate of Contemporary Creativity is installed on the second floor. The large group-participated work collects photographs about the Mediterranean, a sea that represents the heart of our civilization and is the paradigm of key concepts of our present.
Exhibition activities, in collaboration with public bodies or associations for cultural promotion, are present all year round.
On the occasion of the 7th Contemporary Mosaic Biennial of RAvenna, Emanuela Fiori, director of the Museum, and Alessandra Carini, director of MAG Magazzeno Art Gallery, present Nello spazio. Three emerging artists, Mitsuyasu Hatakeda, Caterina Dondi and Tera Drop, chosen among the participants of Equidistanze Residenze Artistiche are called to intervene on two characteristic places of the Museum with site-specific works, in close dialogue with the architectural and natural spaces present in the first two cloisters of the Museum.
On the occasion of the Day of the Contemporary, it will be possible to visit the entire museum and pick up one of the Museum's brochures of previous exhibitions as a gift.