Picasso's Birthplace: On 25th of March 1983, Picasso's birthplace was declared as: “Historical and Artistic Monument of National Interestâ€?. The family had left that house almost one century before. At their first 20 years, this foundation has organized more than 100 art exhibitions, 150 meetings about Picasso and the contemporary art creation, to offered over 150 didactical meetings about the Spanish artist on collective centers on Malaga, releasing over 100 volumes of books and catalogues, to convene 14 Pablo Ruiz Picasso's Plastic Arts scholarships... and a lot more. When the Pablo Ruiz Picasso Foundation opened its doors for the first time in 1988, they didn't have any Picasso's artistical property, and at first, they didn't want to collect anything. However, during their first 20 years of existence, this foundation collected over 4000 artistical properties of more than 200 different artists, obtaining a very important collection of Picasso and other artists. During 2007, Pablo Ruiz Picasso Foundation received 101,273 visits. Studying these results, we can know that more than 50% are from different countries of Europe, being the most frequent visits of British, German, French, and Italian inhabitants. The Spanish ones are over 34%, and the other 16% are from different places, like AmĂŠrica, Asia, etc... During 2008, the visits number increased over 122k visits. On 26th February of 1988, Malaga Town Hall approved the Foundation, and set the main place on the Picasso's birthplace. On these first years, the Foundation occupied the first floor on that building, the floor when Picasso was born. There, it was a little museum, an Events Room, a documentation center and the main offices. Even knowing it wasn't a very glamurous place, it was integrated in the Spanish Museum System by the Culture Ministery on 20 th February of 1991, and also, since the first day, it recived a lot of support and donations of public, and even the Picasso's Family. Some years later, because of the number of programmed activities and the alwaysincreasing number of visitants, made the Fundation to close the building to perform some rehabilitation works in the structure of the building. These fixes were finished 22 nd June of 1998. With these fixes, the Fundation finally could use the rest of the building, multiplying by 5 the total space they had available. With that, they improved the quality and number of activities, and spread their art collection a lot.
Rules for the visitors: These rules have to be accomplish if you want to visit this place: • • • • • • • • •
Please do not touch any art piece. They are very fragile. The access to the building will be denied if you bring food or drinks. Photos and videos of the building's inside are not allowed, without permission. Inside the building, it is not allowed to smoke. Animals are not allowed. (Except Guide Dogs) If you bring kids with you, please keep them next to you. Make sure they learn not to touch any valuable objects, and not to run or play, because it could be annoying to the visitors. Do not access with big packages. If so, then you will have to keep them into lockers. Sharp objects are not allowed. If you have mobility problems, the staff will gladly help you.