The Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno is one of Valencia’s great cultural offerings. With a new season ahead, its director Consuelo Ciscar talked about opening new roads and her goal of a unique IVAM in a globalised world.

What are the main projects for IVAM’s next season? The macro-exhibition Confines will continue, an educational and an artist workshop by Dara Birnbaum in the autumn will be added. In international terms, Chinese art returns to IVAM, Vicente Colom’s work will go to New York, and our pop art collection to Latin America. Stupia and Natividad Navalon will show before Christmas, and we are working on the exhibition De Gaudi a Picasso for the spring, to be followed by another of our own productions of two 20th century greats, David Smith and Julio Gonzalez.
Is the programming a type of strategy? Behind all programming lies a strategy. IVAM has chosen to disseminate our collections internationally, put on thematic exhibitions and make contemporary art accessible to the public.
Is there something new with respect to the programming that the museum has had until now? Beyond anything new, there is consolidation. This year we are presenting a fantastic exhibition on India and are now bringing over recent Chinese art. I am going to continue to open new roads with innovative artistic projects.
How has IVAM contributed to the Valencian art scene? IVAM has combined its international character with the study, acquisition and promotion of Valencian and Spanish artists. We have been an important part of the cutting-edge of Valencia’s cultural infrastructures and have a collection of 10,570 works of art of which sixty percent have been donations.
Do museums have to specialise? I am increasingly seeing more symptoms of change toward specialisation. I would speak of a horizontal network of museums, a constant dialogue between museum institutions that enrich the international art scene. We’ll have to wait to see if it becomes consolidated.
But IVAM is a museum whose collections have a certain degree of specialisation...That is one of our strong points. It would not have been possible to put on a great Julio Gonzalez exhibition without our loans. Each year we lend more than 1,000 works to other museums and institutions. In a certain way, it produces specialisation, not in order to compete but to share.
How is the crisis affecting the art at IVAM? As to what we show, our own collections play a large role and enjoy an enormous prestige, one which allows us to face the present crisis on steady grounds. It is certain that the decline in patronage also affects museums, but to paraphrase Einstein, invention, discovery and great strategies increase in times of crisis. Whoever overcomes the crisis overcomes oneself without becoming “overcome”. To get out of the crisis, creativity and culture have to be the foundation of innovation. In every crisis there is a psychological feedback. You have to work hard. The only crisis is the tragedy of not struggling to overcome it which has to be ended for once and for all.
Can a museum create programmes to attract tourism and generate income? Museums are an essential part of a city’s culture and tourism. Catering to tourism is another question. There is a type of museum with that aim, but in others such as IVAM, culture is much more important than tourism.
In what way does the director of such an important museum impose her personality, tastes and preferences? That always happens. Directors assume the risk, convinced that they have something to say to society. It is obvious that the figure of the director is subjective, in line with a fundamental principle of art which is the point of view.
Jazz, blues, music, fashion... does everything have a place in IVAM? Everything related to modern and contemporary art. Starting in the 20th century, art has broken boundaries. On the other hand, it is not as new as some think, given that the Renaissance man’s fundamental characteristic was in connecting knowledge.