42°36′24″N 5°34′56″W / 42.60667°N 5.58222°W / 42.60667; -5.58222

Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (MUSAC)
EstablishedApril 1, 2005[1]
Location24 Avenida de los Reyes Leoneses, León, Spain
Visitors500.000[2]
DirectorÁlvaro Rodríguez Fominaya
Websitewww.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]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 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. 1 2 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.
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