Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León

"MUSAC" redirects here. For the Australian university sports centre, see Macquarie University Sport and Aquatic Centre. For the music brand, see Muzak.

42°36′24″N 5°34′56″W

Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (MUSAC)

Established	April 1, 2005[1]
Location	24 Avenida de los Reyes Leoneses, León, Spain
Visitors	500.000[2]
Director	Álvaro Rodríguez Fominaya
Website	www.musac.es

The Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, better known as the MUSAC, is a contemporary art museum in the city of León, Spain.

Inaugurated in April 2005 by Felipe, Prince of Asturias, this cultural institution aims to be a "Museum of the Present", in the words of its curator Agustín Pérez Rubio, and thus only collects artworks from the latest generation of artists, between 1992 and 2012.^[1][3][4] The museum has won international prestige for its 21st-century collection and innovative programming, being labelled, for example, as "one of the most astonishingly bold museums to hit the Spanish cultural landscape in years" by The New York Times.^[3][5]

The MUSAC building is celebrated for its avant-garde architecture, and it has been awarded a number of prizes, such as the 2007 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture (Mies van der Rohe award).^[6] Designed by the architectural studio of Luis M. Mansilla and Emilio Tuñón (Mansilla+Tuñón Arquitectos), the multicolored panels that adorn the exterior of the museum resemble the stained-glass windows of a cathedral. The architects drew their inspiration for this work from the main rose window (called The Falconer) at the local 13th century Gothic cathedral, Santa María de León.^[1]

MUSAC has become a landmark for the city of León,^[1] and an emblem of the new 21st century Spanish architecture,^[3] as showcased in a 2006 exhibition at the MoMA of New York City (On-Site: New Architecture in Spain), which selected the MUSAC as one of the arquitectural projects that make Spain today "an international center for design innovation and excellence".^[7]

Gallery

• 
  Facade
• 
  AMIKEJO at MUSAC with Fermín Jiménez Landa & Lee Welch
• 
  A view of MUSAC on a winter's day
• 
  MUSAC during its opening.
• 
  MUSAC interior.
• 
  MUSAC interior.

References

1. Abend, Lisa (May 29, 2005). "At a New Museum in Spain, a Contemporary Inspiration Drawn From Stained Glass". The New York Times. Retrieved May 19, 2010.
2. "El Musac de León alcanza las 500.000 visitas desde su inauguración en abril de 2005". El Mundo (in Spanish). June 1, 2008.
3. Ferren, Andrew (February 19, 2006). "In Eternal Spain, Architecture on the Edge". The New York Times. Retrieved May 19, 2010.
4. "Nace el MUSAC, primer museo del presente". El País (in Spanish). April 2, 2005.
5. Ferren, Andrew (September 23, 2007). "Welcome to the Land of 'Wow-Factor' Museums". The New York Times. Retrieved May 19, 2010.
6. "Mies van der Rohe Award". The Fundació Mies van der Rohe. 2007. Archived from the original on 2009-03-19.
7. "On-Site: New Architecture in Spain". MoMA. Feb–May 2006.

External links

• Official Website
• At a New Museum in Spain, a Contemporary Inspiration Drawn From Stained Glass
• Architectural analysis of MUSAC by Want Magazine