An acoustic concert, painting, visits, classical music, workshops and more. On Saturday 27th October, Museo Picasso Málaga celebrates its ninth anniversary with A Day at the Picasso, a day full of activities that confirm the museum&rsquo";"s status as a place to view and think about art and to enjoy live music. To celebrate this ninth anniversary, admission to Museo Picasso Málaga is free all day. Citizens of Malaga and visitors to the city are all invited to come along and view the permanent collection, which currently includes Lobster and Cat, on loan from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Crommelynck Printing Press, and the recently opened temporary exhibition, The Grotesque Factor. Admission to the Museum and the activities are free, except for the Anni B Sweet acoustic concert, for which tickets are on sale for 4 euros.

Saturday, 27th October 2012 is the ninth anniversary of the opening of Museo Picasso Málaga. To celebrate this major date, the museum is presenting a programme of activities that will run parallel to the recently opened exhibition, The Grotesque Factor. The exhibition takes a look at the significance of this aesthetic genre at different periods in the history of Western art, and comprises over 270 works by more than 70 international artists whose work has been brought together for this occasion. They include Leonardo da Vinci, Francisco de Goya, James Ensor, Paul Klee, Pablo Picasso, Otto Dix, Willem de Kooning and Francis Bacon. Visitors will also be able to enjoy free admission to the MPM&rsquo";"s permanent collection, which contains oil paintings, engravings, sculptures and ceramics by the artist to whom the museum is devoted. They will also be able to view his painting Lobster and Cat, which is on loan from the Solomon R. Guggenheim in New York as part of the Guest Museum project, and which is on show here for the first time in Spain.

The morning will be devoted to family activities, starting at 11.00am. with the workshop tour of the permanent collection entitled Imaginary Characters. Then at 1.00pm, there will be a caricature workshop on Masks, focusing on the new temporary exhibition. Also, at 12 noon, the New Moon Quartet will be playing in the MPM auditorium, where youngsters will discover classical music&rsquo";"s power of communication at a concert workshop for children called How do Musical Instruments Speak? The creative work will continue in the evening, at 6.00pm, with an engraving workshop for adults, Relief Engravings, at which participants will learn the dry point technique used by Picasso and other artists whose work in on display in The Grotesque Factor exhibition.

Throughout the day there will be guided tours of different areas of the museum. At 11.30am and 8.00pm, the Other Spaces tour will take place, visiting the palace, the museum spaces and other areas where access is usually restricted, such as the roof. The temporary exhibition will be the subject of Talking about the Grotesque, a narrated tour that will take place at 1.30pm and at 5.30pm. Visits continue at 6.30pm and at 7.30pm, with archaeological tours that move from the ground beneath the Buenavista Palace, to the Roman Theatre, exploring the remains of ancient Malaga. This activity is being held again this year due to its success in previous editions.

Classical music also has a place on the agenda, with two concerts by the Lehmberg string quartet, at 12 noon and at 5pm, in which they will play Glazunov&rsquo";“s Five Novelettes in the main courtyard of the Buenavista Palace. The icing on the cake will be an acoustic concert by singer-songwriter Anni B Sweet, which starts at 9.00pm in the MPM Auditorium. The Malaga-born musician will play acoustic versions of the songs from her latest album, Oh, Monsters! which came out this spring, and from her debut album Start, Restart, Undo (2009). After having travelled the five continents, performing in countries such as Canada, Mexico, Japan, German and France, as well as in Dubai and Australia, she returns to her hometown to present, with her crystal-clear voice and folk-music style, a catalogue of sweet, melodious songs that are full of detail and atmosphere. Anni B Sweet has been nominated Best New Artist and Best New Songwriter at the Spain&rsquo”;"s Premios de la Música awards, and has received the Premio Guille for Best Pop Artist, amongst other awards.

The Museum will also be celebrating its 9th Anniversary by giving away books published by MPM. The gifts will be allocated using a computerized system when visitors acquire their free admission voucher at the ticket office.

On the occasion of its ninth anniversary, Museo Picasso Málaga would like once again to thank its sponsoring institutions and companies, whose commitment to art and culture is essential in order to produce the museum&rsquo";"s artistic programmes: Advising Sponsor RTVA, and Sponsoring Partners Vocento, Grupo Joly, San Miguel, Fundación Aena and Málaga Provincial Council.

This event is part of the cycle Picasso 20 Gazes. Malaga, 20 years under Picasso&rsquo";"s gaze.