The reopening of the Museo Fortuny, the return of the restored rooms in the Palazzo Reale to the Museo Correr, the MUVE Contemporaneo biennale with Anselm Kiefer, Afro and Raqib Shaw, the shows of MUVE Mestre on the mainland and of MUVE Outdoor abroad, the International Year of Glass, the Lace Biennale, events to mark the 150th anniversary of the death of the explorer Giovanni Miani and the return to the lagoon, after centuries, of the Venetian paintings in the Pushkin collection. With a museum circuit extending across the historic city and on the mainland, the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia presents an exhibition programme for 2022 that embraces both history and contemporary art.

Greetings from the mayor of Venice, Luigi Brugnaro: “Venice is starting up again with its museums, the pride and joy of the whole city, its inhabitants and those who visit and are entralled by them every year. They are places in which the exhibitions combine ancient and contemporary art in a seamless thread that exalts the city’s history and traditions. We have never been at a standstill, either after the flooding in November 2019 or during the pandemic, a period in which we worked hard to reopen Ca’ Pesaro and now the Museo Fortuny. But that is not all, because we are also ready to throw open the doors of the Palazzo Reale, and the rooms overlooking the Gardens, to the public, thanks also to the enduring faith shown by patrons of the arts and supporters. It is with this resilient spirit that we are readying ourselves for the new year, with a programme including three major exhibitions at the Palazzo Ducale, the international shows of Muve Contemporaneo running alongside the Biennale, and important collaborations with regional and with big international museums. A Kandinsky exhibition will be arriving at the Candiani cultural centre in Mestre in autumn, and, as always, particular attention will be given to Venice’s fine traditional products – the glass of Murano and the lace of Burano, not to mention the international boat design competition preceding the Venice Boat Show. Venice also supports young talent and creativity, and in 2022, for the third year running, the city council, with the support of MUVE, will be promoting the “Creators of our Time” competition. Young artists from around the world are invited to put themselves to the test, with an opportunity, for the winners, to showcase their work at one of the world’s most prestigious exhibitions, in the Venice Pavilion of the Biennale. We hope to finally put this terrible pandemic behind us and welcome visitors and scholars in the best possible way.”

"The years of the pandemic - declared the president of the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia Mariacristina Gribaudi - with all the civil, economic and cultural consequences it has inevitably entailed, call for a response, so as to continue to ensure that our heritage and places of knowledge continue to be conserved and visited, and to participate in a broader process capable of taking us into a future that we can only imagine at present but to which we can and must contribute with the resources available to us. Reopening and expanding spaces returned to the city, enhancing the value of the collections, presenting temporary exhibitions to the international art scene with the MUVE Contemporaneo biennale, strengthening conservation and research activities and promoting the lagoon’s historic legacy, and reinforcing territorial and global relations are all necessary acts of resilience pursued with a sense of responsibility, considering the various emergencies that the millenarian city of Venice, the Serenissima, must once again face. With these goals in mind, and our very warmest welcome, we hope to see you in our museums, which are the museums of Venice and of its citizens".

The Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia enters the year 2022 under the direction of Gabriella Belli, with the eagerly awaited reopening of two key places in the city’s museum circuit. The first to reopen its doors, two years after the Acqua Granda, is the Museo Fortuny in the Palazzo Pesaro degli Orfei. It now has a new exhibition layout focusing on the life that animated it when it was the home and workshop of Mariano Fortuny – 2021 was the 150th anniversary of his birth – and his wife and muse Henriette Negrin. The Fortuny, as it is called by Venetians, is to become a permanent exhibition venue. Paintings, clothes and fabrics, lighting and stage designs and everything associated with the artistic and productive paths that evolved in the palace, at the centre of the cosmopolitan relations of the age, will once again be on display for Venetians and visitors to admire all year round. The Museum will however also continue to host temporary exhibitions, with a particular emphasis on the contemporary.