MON registers 712 thousand visitors in 2024

MON registers 712 thousand visitors in 2024: historic attendance record
In 2024, the Oscar Niemeyer Museum registered the largest attendance since its inauguration: 712,196 people. The number is 41% higher than the total for 2023, which had been 503 thousand visitors. In the last three years, MON has been on an upward curve, surpassing its own previous records. Of the total for 2024, 75% were free tickets.

Among the highlights of last year, in addition to 13 exhibitions held, the Museum delivered important infrastructure works and won several national and international awards.

At the beginning of the year, the project “MON sem Paredes – Artistas Conquistam os Jardins do MON” inaugurated a new edition. In the outdoor area of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum, visitors are treated to an interactive sculpture park, with works by artists such as Artur Lescher, Rômmulo Conceição, Alexandre Vogler, Narcélio Grud and Joana Vasconcelos.

Curated by Marc Pottier, the site houses several permanent and temporary installations, in a calendar of frequent invitations made by the MON. “Increasingly democratic and inclusive, with ‘MON sem Paredes’ the Museum broke the physical limits of its walls and embraced the population, making itself accessible to everyone”, explains the institution’s CEO, Juliana Vosnika. “The initiative is an invitation for the general public to perceive art, be inspired and feel encouraged to enter.”

Many other new exhibitions were held in 2024, such as the three delivered in November, in the celebrations of the Museum’s 22nd anniversary. They were: “The Eye of the Night”, by Jean-Michel Othoniel, and “Affinities III – Whisper, Luiz Zerbini”, both curated by Marc Pottier, and “Living in Harmony with Impermanence”, curated by Géraldine Lenain.

“The Eye of the Night” features works by French artist Jean-Michel Othoniel that transformed the exhibition hall of the Eye into a kind of large planetarium, with the signs of the zodiac floating in the form of 12 blown glass sculptures. On the floor, blue glass bricks reflect the constellation and the architecture of the building, in a surprising combination. In total, the exhibition presents 25 large-scale works that are spread throughout other spaces of the Museum.

The exhibition “Affinities III – Whispering” is the third edition of a MON project that began in 2021. This time, contemporary artist Luiz Zerbini selected works by five important names in Paraná art that are present in the MON collection: Guido Viaro, Miguel Bakun, Bruno Lechowski, Guilherme William Michaud and Theodoro de Bona. In common, or by affinity, as well as their works presented, all the works chosen have nature as their theme.

Also on MON's anniversary, “Living in Harmony with Impermanence” was inaugurated, the new edition of the exhibition “Asia: the Earth, the Men, the Gods”, on display in Room 5. Among other novelties, there are immersive experiences in real time, a library of interactive videos, a video installation and a “Virtual Museum” with 16 works by 12 Asian artists.

In addition to these, other exhibitions held by MON in 2024 were: “Before and Now, Far and Within”; “Choreographies of the Impossible – SP Biennial Itinerancy”; “MON without Walls”; “Trails and Traces – Poty 100 Years”; “Elizabeth Jobim – The Time of Stones”; “The Garden – Efrain Almeida”; “German Lorca – Master of Photography”; “Domício Pedroso – Urban Weaving as Poetry”; “Alex Flemming 70 Years” and “Afghanistan: Tapestries of Peace and War”.

Another highlight of the year was the more than 50 thousand people served, in approximately 160 educational activities offered throughout 2024 by the Museum.

MON Improvements

Recently, MON delivered several infrastructure works to its public, such as new cloakrooms, lighting in the external area of the Museum and a ticket office. The goal is to modernize and maintain the building and facilities in general. They improve the accessibility of the Museum and provide an increasingly comfortable, safe and functional environment for its thousands of visitors.

“We understand that culture is a powerful tool for citizenship and belonging. Therefore, we are committed to always offering the best to our audience, which, fortunately, is becoming increasingly larger and more diverse,” explains Juliana Vosnika, MON’s CEO.

“We have had an excellent response from the public to the exhibitions presented and to a series of educational activities offered by the institution,” she comments. The infrastructure works are part of a set of actions aimed at ensuring the best possible experience for MON visitors.

Juliana comments that the improvements are divided into three main areas: 1) infrastructure, “which aims to improve the experience of visiting the Museum”; 2) management and 3) security and data management, via a new system that uses Artificial Intelligence. “Based on more accurate data, we will be able to offer an increasingly better service to our public”, she explains.

The infrastructure stage includes items such as: new lockers and metal detectors; improvements to the Museum’s external lighting and renovations to the MON Café, MON Store and ticket office. The “management improvement” area includes the implementation of a visitor survey system and physical qualifications in the technical reserve, such as the acquisition of new equipment (sliding rails) to better accommodate the Museum’s permanent collection, in addition to the implementation of QR Codes to identify the works.

In the area of security and data management, the MON underwent a comprehensive modernization of its system, with the aim of improving the protection of the collection, as well as that of visitors and employees.

MON for All – Autistic People

Recognized nationally and internationally, the MON for All – Autistic People program was one of the highlights of 2024, with awards and mentions at several industry events. In April, it was presented at Communicating The Arts (CTA), in Paris, France, the largest and most important conference on museums and art in the world.

The theme of the case study presented by the Museum at CTA was “Welcoming the Autistic Community: Including Audiences in the Decision-Making Process”. The lecture covered the inclusion strategies adopted to improve accessibility at the Museum, not only in the spaces, but also in the preparation of the teams that work at MON, in order to meet the needs of autistic people.

In the last week of November, the Oscar Niemeyer Museum participated in two important events: the 11th Ibero-American Meeting of Museums, in Lima, Peru, and the 8th National Museum Forum, in Fortaleza (CE). In both, the MON presented recent programs in the areas of inclusion.

The program was presented at the Museo Nacional del Perú – MUNA, during the 11th Ibero-American Meeting of Museums: “Learnings, affections and memories, the great event of Ibero-American cooperation for the gathering of museums from the entire region”.

“MON for All – Autistic People: Welcoming the Neurodivergent Community in the Museum” was also presented within the 8th National Forum of Museums, in Fortaleza (CE), at the XIV Regional Meeting of the Committee for Education and Cultural Action for Latin America and the Caribbean (CECA LAC).

In the main program of the 8th National Forum of Museums, organized by the Brazilian Institute of Museums (Ibram), the MON was selected to present two works. They were: the “I Participate!” program, aimed at the participation of employees, with the work “Who Turns on the Lights?”, and the “MON for All – Blind People” program, with the personalized experience “How to Make Noise in the Museum?”, to assist blind and visually impaired people in the exhibition “Trails and Traces”, by Poty Lazzarotto.

In December, the MON for All – Autistic People program was also among the highlights of the Viva Inclusion Award 2024, from the City Hall of Curitiba.

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