Will Antonello’s «Ecce Homo» announced as “itinerant” by the Minister of Culture Alessandro Giuli also stop at the Accascina Regional Museum in Messina? If confirmed, he will be welcomed by a museum renovated in its external “skin” and in the visit route between the rooms. A museum – whose visitors in 2024 were 26,360, and in 2025 27,624 – finally worthy of its important collections, able to best guarantee the conservation of its works of art and 360-degree accessibility. Thanks to the commitment of the previous director Orazio Micali, continued with equal attention by the current director Marisa Mercurio.
The latter previews exclusively to the Gazzetta del Sud that the creation of an “immersive classroom” is underway within the permanent exhibition “1908 CittàMuseoCittà”, in the site of the former Mellinghoff spinning mill. «It is – he explains – a digital blackboard in which the heart of the experience is an interactive map of the city, based on a plan from 1902 preserved in this museum. Through the points of interest identified on the map, the user is invited to explore the most significant points of the urban center before the earthquake: churches, convents, squares, public buildings that tell of a Messina whose roots lie in antiquity and whose traces are still visible in today’s urban landscape”.
But in the pipeline there is also the renewal of the exhibition itinerary from Antonello to Caravaggio (339 thousand euros, Po Fesr funds). In recent years, with work starting in 2023, the museum has been the subject of two important construction sites. One with Po Fesr funds (752,087.00 euros, works direction by architect Domenico Crisafulli, rup architect by Santi Daniele Guarnera, both within the Administration, and Micali coordination) involved the internal and external elevations, the renewal and implementation of the collections, with around 50 works from the deposits, and the updating of the lighting system.
The main objective is to resolve the suffering of the precious paintings, directly damaged by the sun’s rays, also responsible for an uncontrolled system of internal humidity in the rooms. This was possible thanks to the closure, with wall panels, of the large full-height vertical skylights, as well as the creation of 16 new exhibition niches, to completely replace the large windows on the ground floor, in which, the director tells us, «by June architectural finds recovered from the rubble of 1908 will be displayed». The most striking aspect of the intervention is the red color choice for the new opaque façades. It is functional, explains Micali, «to recognize the Museum building’s value as a beacon of culture, due to the strategic position of the settlement located right in front of the sea of the Strait».
While it also reminds us of the original flamboyant polychromy of the Greek temples, including those of Magna Graecia, which was not a simple decorative element, but had a precise technical and functional function aimed at contrasting the dazzling light of the sun, integrating the architecture into the natural environment, making it a powerful visual reference point and not faded by the southern brightness. And among the most used colors was red. In short, nothing could be further from an aesthetic whim for the new MuMe.
The second is a PNRR project aimed at removing physical and cognitive barriers in museums, libraries and archives, with funding of 1,190,000.00 euros. Given the complexity and variety of the interventions in this case, various external professionals were involved, with coordination for the technical-economic feasibility exclusively by Micali. A success for the museum on the banks of the Strait: among all the competitors (between Campania, Basilicata, Puglia, Calabria, Sicily, Sardinia) only 5 projects were admitted for funding, with that of Messina being the only museum.
A project which, also thanks to the use of technologies and tools with the use of AI, has made the museum visit path easy and inclusive for every type of user, even in the presence of reduced cognitive, sensorial, mechanical and functional abilities. The entire visit route is, in fact, accompanied by a webapp guide accessible to anyone in 5 languages, which can be used without downloading any application. An information panel in dual languages is associated with the 12 sections that make up the route. There is also augmented reality with Epson Moverio glasses which immerse the visitor in a virtual dimension of in-depth analysis of the work and the author.
Above all, the merit of having conducted two construction sites at the same time, completed in less than a year (the po-fesr in August 2024; the PNRR in October of the same year) without having them cross paths and without ever closing the museum, should be underlined. Indeed, the offer has even been expanded, thanks to the exhibition «1908 CittàMuseoCittà». However, the concession of additional services to Aditus will expire on April 30th. Among these also the museum ticket office. It is hoped that this will be an opportunity to integrate the two separate ticket offices: the one for the exhibition on the earthquake is, in fact, managed by the Museum. While waiting for the new announcement, the latter will take care of both from May 1st.