Centro nazionale per le arti contemporanee (Museo MAXXI)

In 1998, the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities created a temporary exhibition space to initiate cultural programming for a planned future institution. Often called “the center before the center,” the Centro nazionale per le arti contemporanee began exhibiting in 2000 and closed before construction for the new iteration began in 2005. This museum, MAXXI (Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo), opened in 2010 and is housed in the world-famous building by Zaha Hadid. MAXXI and its predecessor constitute the first national institution devoted to contemporary art and the first national museum of architecture to be established in Italy. The programming of the activities – exhibitions, workshops, conferences, shows, projections, educational projects – reflects MAXXI’s role as a place for the conservation and exhibition of its collections but also, and above all, a laboratory for cultural experimentation and innovation for study, research and production.