New Rome arts and architecture center to open in early 2010

The Maxxi Contemporary Arts Center, which was completed by London-based Zaha Hadid Architects last week, will open to the public after all collections have been moved in.

After the new building was presented to the press, the museum whose collection is temporarily stored in Rome's H. C. Andersen Museum says that Maxxi is expected to welcome its first visitors early next year.

Then, according to its curators, the new space that got raving reviews by many critics for bringing fresh shapes to the Eternal City, will host architectural archives of Italians such as Carlo Scarpa as well as contemporary art by Andy Warhol, Gerhard Richter, or Anish Kapoor, among many others.

Pio Baldi, president of the Maxxi Foundation, stated: "MAXXI will not be a museum as the others. It will not only be a place where to exhibit works of art. MAXXI will be a research workshop for comparing different contemporary languages: design, fashion, cinema and advertising will establish a dialogue with art and architecture. The museum will be a real factory of creativity. Its cultural mission will be inspired by three key words: innovation, multiculturalism and interdisciplinarity."

Site: darc.beniculturali.it/MAXXI