Accademia Galleries Venezia

The link that exists between the Galleries of the Accademia and the city of Venice is strong. The Galleries in fact contain many works of art which came from churches and schools and from public offices of authority. A visit to the city is therefore a necessary extension to that of the art collections, or vice versa, for only in this way can the visitor fully understand how and why the painters adopted certain solutions based on the destination of a painting and its meaning. In some cases the works exhibited in the Galleries are the only evidence which remains from churches demolished during Napoleon's dominion, and some of the most famous paintings from illustrious private Venetian collections arrived at the museum thanks to bequests and donations. Examples of these are Piero della Francesca's Saint Jerome, many Virgin and Child paintings by Giovanni Bellini and the Venetian sketches by Pietro Longhi.
Despite the necessary changes to the configurations carried out since the end of the war, the traditional aspect of the museums has been maintained. During the last ten years tourism to art galleries has greatly increased and has educated the public to a kind of museum, common in America and Europe, but radically different from the Italian Museum. With Act N° 4 of 1993 passed during the Ronchey Ministry, there has been radical reform in the Italian museums - the Museum offers not only the traditional visit to its collections and temporary exhibitions, but also varied services to enable him to become familiar with the works of art in a deeper and more scientific way. It proposes guided tours suitable to all cultural levels and instructive programmes for schools. There is the pedagogical museum with workshops for scholastic programmes and extra curricular activities, there are lectures and meetings, publications, concerts and painting courses. There is also the art bookshop, the cafeteria and restaurant, the internal shop which sells exclusive items inspired by the works contained in the museum. There is a government policy which has reduced the price of all tickets to enter museums, and made exempt from payment those under the age of 18 and over the age of 65, linked with season tickets or a single combined ticket for entrance to all the museums in a city and the Museum, as a centre of services, allows the art collection to merge into the everyday social life of the residents and invites the tourist to repeat his visit in a different way each time. In other countries this solution has favoured the formation of many new museums not necessarily dedicated to art.