Museums in Rome are among the oldest and most famous in the world, prized for their outstanding collections, collecting histories, and architecture. Together, they present a full range of Western European museum history in one of the most consequential of historic cities. Roman museums begin with 15th-century papal gifts of ancient bronze statues to the Capitoline Hill and progress to world-class Baroque-era private collections, the labyrinthine Vatican museums, national museums of world civilizations, modernism, and antiquities and an “archistar” institution for contemporary art, bringing the Eternal City’s cultural life up to the present moment.
The 21st century is a particularly engaging moment to study the history of museums. Due to pressing concerns about new ways to make old art accessible, global art, decolonization, and the social and political responsibilities of culture, museums are undergoing great periods of self-reflection. This KNIR dialogue series proposes a set of public lectures and conversations with current museum directors in Rome who are particularly engaged in institutional introspection. In this way, audiences can learn more about the legacies that Roman museums choose to reflect on today and the challenges and solutions for reinterpreting the past in the present and for the future.
This is our fourth Roman Museum Legacies Dialogue, which will be moderated by our Museum Fellow, Dr. Laurie Kalb Cosmo.
The Museum Directors Dialogues are events in person and live streamed.
About dott.ssa Olga Melasecchi, director of the Jewish Museum in Rome
Dott.ssa Olga Melasecchi has been Director of the Jewish Museum in Rome since 2018 and collaborated with this museum since 2003. A specialist in Roman Baroque art, she has also taught art and architecture history at the University of Teramo. Dott.ssa Melasecchi is the author of essays on the art history of Rome from Mannerism to the Twentieth century, and the history of Roman Jewish art. The organizer of numerous exhibitions at the Jewish Museum of Rome, she has collaborated with other important public institutions in Italy, including the Uffizi Gallery and the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art in Rome. She received her PhD in Art History from the University of Rome La Sapienza.
