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Student looks at display at Judaism Museum, Casablanca Jan 28, 2011. Photo: A. Senna/AFP
Al Monitor, by Meryem Saadi, from TelQuel (April 22, 2013) — In the coming years, all the museums in Morocco will be renovated and new ones will emerge. Below are the reasons driving this initiative.
At the headquarters of the Museum Foundation in the Hassan district of Rabat, ensconced in his office decorated with paintings, photographs and sculptures by contemporary Moroccan artists, Mehdi Qotbi shares the objectives of the organization he has headed since December 2011.
“The museum has only effectively been functional for six months. It took us some time to develop our offices and to recruit a dynamic team that is well-informed on the topic of museums,” explains the artist. Yet Qotbi lost no time in building relationships with the Ministry of Culture and with major French museums. It has been quite the opposite.
Morocco currently has 13 museums, which have hitherto been overseen by the Ministry of Culture. With the establishment of the foundation, however, everything has changed. In a few months, they will all be formally under the authority of the institution managed by Qotbi. During the last three months, a tripartite commission composed of the foundation, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Finance has toured all the museums in the four corners of the country, with the objective of preparing a detailed report on the sites’ conditions and the works of art they contain.
Culture in action
“It was very important for us to list the existing museums before embarking on a clear renovation strategy,” said Qotbi. The next step will be to find funding to improve the condition of the museums. Qotbi is already knowledgeable on the subject and has started to seek answers from several large Moroccan companies.
“The idea is to reach a point where each of several large companies takes the helm of renovating a museum. I’m pretty confident about this. We already have several agreements in principle,” he said.
Another of the foundation’s objectives is to create several new museums of international standards. The first of its kind is the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Rabat, work on which resumed a few months ago.
“People are sometimes surprised that it is not yet finished, since the project began nine years ago. You should know that even in Europe, projects of this magnitude can take more than 10 years,” noted Qotbi. If all goes well, this impressive museum will open its doors to the public in 2013. Other museums are also under study, and, in the long run, the aim is to have a museum in every large Moroccan city.
“We are also thinking hard with the Ministry of Tourism and the General Confederation of the Enterprises of Morocco about a way to integrate the museums in the tourism policy of the country and ensure that they are an essential stop for tourists,” added Qotbi.
A communication strategy will also be exclusively dedicated to Moroccan citizens. “We want these places to be accessible to all Moroccans, so they can take ownership of their culture. This is why entrance to the museum is free for them on Fridays and Saturdays,” said Qotbi.
However, before that, one of the biggest concerns of the foundation is the lack of qualified personnel to manage these museums. Indeed, Morocco sorely lacks art experts and museum and art curators. To overcome this problem, the foundation has signed various agreements in Europe to train Moroccans in these new professions.
The prestigious Louvre Museum is one of the main cooperators, as well as the Arab World Institute and the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations based in Marseille. It is true that the task at hand will require long-term efforts, but they will eventually pay off.
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