The MAN is a permanent public institution that is one of a kind in Sardinia, devoted to the study, conservation and promotion of modern and contemporary art. The museum pursues its cultural aims by engaging in a number of different activities, which take place both inside the museum and beyond its walls: installation of exhibition projects dedicated to contemporary visual expression and the history of art from the 19th to the 21st century, the promotion of the cultural heritage it preserves (the collection of Sardinian art from the 20th century to the modern day), the development of training programs, mediation and learning opportunities designed to suit different audiences. The idea is to instate an "open museum", a permanent workshop dedicated to artistic enquiry and experimentation, a production and communication space where memory and innovation, research and dissemination, global thinking and local action can co-exist.