Displaying items by tag: guggenheim bilbao

Iruña to the Basques—the historical capital of the old Kingdom of Navarre in northern Spain, has hitherto been known mainly for its annual Festival of San Fermín, with its running-of-the-bulls immortalised by Ernest Hemingway in “The Sun Also Rises”, and as a stop on the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route. Now the small city is seeking a different form of cultural validation, by taking a path well-trodden in Spain: the opening of a snazzy new museum.

The Museo Universidad de Navarra, tucked into a hillside outside the city center, is most obviously inspired by nearby Bilbao, where the Frank Gehry-designed Guggenheim has been breathing life into post-industrial torpor since 1997.

The Guggenheim museum will remain in Bilbao for the foreseeable future. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation announced yesterday that it was renewing the agreement is has with the Basque museum until 2034. The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao has welcomed almost 17 million visitors and staged over 140 exhibitions since it opened in 1997; and has had much success over the 17 years that is has engaged with the public. In fact the museum success quickly triggered the redevelopment of the formerly decrepit port area of Bilbao and bolstered tourism in the entire Basque Country.

The regeneration of the area and the economic evolution of the country was coined the “Guggenheim effect" soon after to describe this museum-led process.

The Guggenheim has named architect and scholar Troy Conrad Therrien as Curator, Architecture and Digital Initiatives. As the first person to hold this position, Therrien will contribute to the development of the museum’s engagement with architecture, design, technology, and urban studies, in addition to providing leadership on select new projects under the direction of the Chief Curator and the Director’s Office.

The Guggenheim's role in architecture has always been one of patronage, commissioning Frank Lloyd Wright to design its landmark building in New York City and Frank Gehry to design the celebrated Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, which extended the institution's global constellation of museums.