The Stämpfli Foundation is to inaugurate the Sitges Museum of Contemporary Art in early 2011. This new centre will house and exhibit an art collection consisting of some 70 works by 54 recognised contemporary artists from 21 different countries. With just the last few technical details to be completed, the new facility is practically ready.
The Sitges Museum of Contemporary Art will initially open in two buildings: Can Mec (headquarters of the Sitges Historical Studies Group), at number 9, Carrer d’en Bosc, and the adjoining building, the old Fish Market, which is where the museum entrance will be placed, in the Town Hall Square. The museum will later be extended to occupy numbers 5-7 of Carrer d’en Bosc. The Stämpflis have donated the buildings of numbers 5-7 and 9 of Carrer d’en Bosc to the Foundation, along with their private dwelling in the same street. The old Fish Market building has been provided by the Town Council.
Once it opens in early 2011 the museum will begin to establish itself as a permanent centre for the exhibition of contemporary art. The new facility will show part of the collection of the Foundation, set up by Pere Stämpfli and his wife Anna Maria with the aim of putting together a noteworthy collection by prestigious international artists from the latter half of the 20th century. All of the works received by the Foundation have been donated by the artists themselves, their heirs or galleries.
The museum approach of the new centre has been designed by the Advisory Board of the Foundation, composed of Serge Lemoine, former Director of the Musée d’Orsay in Paris; Henry-Claude Cousseau, Director of the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts de Paris; Pascale Le Thorel, Publications Manager of the same centre (and who directs the Foundation’s collection); the art critic Daniel Giralt-Miracle, former Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Catalonia; and the notary Lluís Jou, former Director of Linguistic Policy of the Catalan Government, who, together with the Stämpflis, forms the Foundation’s Board of Trustees.
From March to May 2010 the Stämpfli Foundation showed its collection in an exhibition held in the Miramar Building in Sitges, curated by Sergio Lemoine.
