If all goes well, the Jewish Museum of Venice will undergo a full-scale expansion, revamp, and redevelopment starting in October, right after the High Holidays. The last step before the definitive launch of the three-year, €9 million project is the Municipal Council’s official approval of the final draft of the plans — the city’s executive has already given all the permissions needed, and the final go-ahead is seen as a given.
The project was announced last week during a news conference at the city’s municipal building, attended (in person or virtually) by Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro and Venice Jewish Community President Paolo Gnignati, as well as Museum Director Marcella Ansaldi and the Venice-based art historian and philanthropist David Landau, who manages the project.
Founded in 1953 by the Venice Jewish Community, the Museum, on the main square of the historic Venice ghetto, features an exhibition of ritual objects and other items and incorporates tours of three of the five jewel-like 16th century synagogues in Ghetto.
“The Jewish heritage of the Ghetto is not only real estate or art history but is a ‘human’ journey that testifies to a coexistence between minorities,” Ansaldi told JHE. “It also narrates a lively debate between great personalities of the past, in correlation with a myriad of micro-stories of people who lived in those places, and that we – in the new museum – want to recount and relate to the present.”
According to the official plans by architect Alessandro Pedron, who is responsible for the renovation works, the Museum complex will be enlarged from the current 1,200 square meters to 2,000 square meters.
Renovation work will entail the reinforcement of the Jewish Museum building’s structure, including its paving, and modernization of the air conditioning and the heating systems. The cafeteria, the bookshop and the toilets area will be expanded; there will be new exhibition and educational spaces, and the Jewish community’s library and archive will be redesigned in an expanded space. The museum will also be adapted to the needs of disabled visitors, with the installation of two internal lifts.
Renovation work on the interiors of three synagogues will also take place: the Great German Schola and the Schola Canton, both located in the same building as the Museum’s exhibition rooms, and the Italian Schola, which is located in an adjacent building. The project will connect the main building (where the Museum and the two synagogues are located), to the one that hosts the Italian synagogue, which will also be opened to visitors.
The expansion of the museum will also include the incorporation of a low-ceilinged Ghetto apartment, located beneath the Great German Schola, and the installation there of an exhibit that will recreate the living conditions of a Jewish family during the Ghetto period.
“We want to create a sensory experience to enable visitors to become aware of the living conditions imposed on Jews […] by the Venice Republic in the sixteenth century”, Ansaldi told JHE.
The project will run for about three years and will cost around €9 million. News reports said 60 percent has already been pledged, thanks to the contribution of approximately 20 US and European private investors, who to date wished to remain anonymous. The reports, however, said none of them was from Italy. Local media reported that World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder, who attended the news conference announcing the project by video ink, had donated €2 million to the project.
Watch a video — a conversation with Landau and Ansaldi, touring the current museum and the three synagogues to be restores:
Local media quoted Landau as saying that during the three-year renovation works, the Museum will remain open for visitors. But, since some parts of the Museum will be temporarily closed, the Jewish community has already organized the opening of other spaces inside the ghetto, which are normally closed to the public.
“We want to think of the museum complex as a museum that is spread out,” Ansaldi told JHE. “In the same square where the museum is located (the Campo di Ghetto Novo) and in the Campo di Ghetto Vecchio, there are several midrashim inside buildings owned by the Jewish Community. Moreover, there are two other synagogues dating back to the XVI century that are in use for worship — the Levantine Schola and the Spanish Schola, as well as a small biblical garden and many signs of mezuzot on the [doorposts] of houses.”
The new plan for the museum was made public six years after the announcement of an earlier, 12-million-dollar renovation plan for the Jewish Museum and three historic synagogues that was announced in November 2014 and was meant to be completed in time for the events marking the 500th anniversary of the establishment of the Venice Ghetto in 2016. This comprehensive project was never implemented, though some restoration work was carried out in the synagogues funded through the World Monuments Fund.
Click to see a detailed presentation of the Museum renovation plans (In Italian)
Read an overview of the project’s presentation on the Venice city web site (in Italian)
1 comment on “Italy: Full-scale €9 million revamp & expansion of the Venice Jewish Museum announced; work due to start in October and last 3 years”
Great news and I do hope it comes to pass, especially in such a symbolic city as Venice, supposedly home to the world’s first Jewish ghetto. (Even the word “ghetto” comes from the Venetian). That said, the museum does need to be dragged into the present in terms of a livelier, more interactive presentation. I will happily report on it when the time comes. Let’s hope the museum doesn’t go the way of the previous project, which was never properly implemented, as is often the way in Venice, alas.