Museo Picasso Málaga has consolidated its position as Andalusia’s leading art museum in terms of visitor numbers, obtaining its best-ever results in 2015.The permanent collection, temporary exhibitions and cultural and educational activities, as well as opening seven days a week since January of last year, are among the key factors that led to the 19.25% year-on-year increase. Along with substantial improvements to MPM’s promotional policy, this meant that a total of 489,610 people came to the Palacio de Buenavista in 2015. Throughout last year MPM persevered in its efforts to attract new visitors by supporting the personal, emotional and social development of vulnerable groups (those with functional diversity or at risk of exclusion), thereby helping to improve the wellbeing of the local community and engaging with people previously uninvolved in art museums and culture. Also in 2015, MPM renewed its agreement with La Caixa Foundation. This enabled it to continue to run its programme of inclusive and accessible art and culture by offering a wide range of educational experiences.

In its mission to disseminate the work of Pablo Picasso, Museo Picasso Málaga once again received essential support from its Advisory Sponsor, RTVA, and from its Sponsoring Partners, Vocento, Grupo Joly and Fundación Aena. Their commitment to art and culture is fundamental to the implementation of MPM’s artistic programme.

Picasso, Bourgeois and German Art The two temporary exhibitions Louise Bourgeois. I Have Been to Hell and Back (Spanish critics’ fourth most highly-rated exhibition in 2015, according to the El Cultural supplement of El Mundo newspaper), and Picasso. German Records (still showing until February 2016), met with a great response from visitors and art critics. Glowing reviews appeared in major media such as Apollo magazine (UK), Deutsche Welle radio station (Germany), El País Semanal weekly supplement (Spain) and newspapers La Repubblica (Italy), Le Monde (France) and NZZ (Germany), amongst others.

In putting together its exhibition programme, MPM worked in collaboration with museums, galleries and private collections from around the world. These include Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso (FABA); Fundación Louise Bourgeois, The Easton Foundation, New York; Brücke-Museum Berlin; Centre Pompidou. Musée national d’art moderne, Paris; Fundación Picasso. Museo Casa Natal, Málaga; Galerie Henze & Ketterer, Wichtrach; Hauser&Wirth; Kirchner Museum Davos; Kunstmuseum Pablo Picasso Münster; Musée du Quai Branly, Paris; Musée Picasso, Paris; Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid; Museu Picasso, Barcelona; Nolde-Stiftung Seebüll, Neukirchen; Otto Dix Stiftung; Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden; and Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven.

A busy educational and cultural year To fulfil its commitment to drawing artworks closer to civil society, Museo Picasso Málaga designs educational programmes that act as an intermediary between the artwork and the public. This is done by organizing debates and workshops that focus on the concepts that lie behind the works in the MPM collection and the temporary exhibitions, and serves to enhance an experience in which visitors’ own voices can be heard alongside those of art teachers, experts and historians. Last year, 24,969 people benefitted from these educational activities. Of these, 19,530 were schoolchildren who took part in guided visits and workshops aimed at primary, secondary and upper secondary pupils. There were also another 1,463 people with functional diversity (physical, auditory, visual, organic, intellectual, psychological and learning) and/or who belonged to socially vulnerable groups.

Museo Picasso Málaga runs a busy programme of cultural activities which offer numerous ways to enjoy the arts for anyone, at any age. Activities include seminars, talks, the visual arts, classical music, theatre, jazz, poetry and flamenco, amongst others. Over 5,329 people attended cultural events at MPM in 2015.

With this heavy schedule of cultural and educational activity, MPM has strengthened its collaborative ties with local cultural bodies such as: Adis Meridianos; Asociación de Artistas Plásticos de Málaga (APLAMA); Asociación Miguel Romero Esteo; Ateneo de Málaga; Casa del Libro; Centro Principia; Escuela de fotografía Apertura; Festival de Málaga de Cine Español; FNAC Málaga; Fundación Ciudadana Carnaval de Málaga; Málaga Knits; Orquesta Filarmónica de Málaga; Teatro Romano de Málaga; and Urban Sketchers, Málaga. Alongside the continued support of the Junta de Andalucía’s Cultural Office, MPM has also been backed by Andalusian regional institutions such as Centro Andaluz de las Letras and Instituto Andaluz de la Mujer, and by businesses and cultural organizations with a national scope, such as Fundación ACS; Fundación SGAE; Goethe-Institute, Madrid; Institut Français de España; the German Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and Codorniú.