MUSE - A new Science Museum

MUSE | Il nuovo Museo delle Scienze

The new Science Museumin Trento


these are the key words to define MUSE - The Science Museum, a new destination on Trento’s

Activeattractive memorable

map that aims at actively involving its visitors with innovative themes and exhibitions.


The project di Scienze Naturali, the MUSE is the fulcrum of the redevelopment project, entrusted to the famous architect Renzo Piano, situated on an abandoned industrial area.With a surface area of 19,000 square metres,

the MUSE stimulates in its visitors the thirst for knowledge about the natural world, stressing the urgency of focusing on the relationship between mankind and Nature and the changes man has brought to the environment.

The MUSE is a public institution of the Autonomous Province of Trento that conducts intensive scientific research on mountain environments. By inheriting the ultra-centennial legacy of the Museo Tridentino


The Architecture of Nature

The building itself is a perfect example of integration between architectural design and exhibition function, with its large, almost vertically sloping sides that are an immediate reminder of the Alpine scenery.

The exhibit spaces are highly immersive, abounding in “special effects” that inspire in the visitor the same emotions felt by Alpine mountaineers as they climb steep rock faces or by downhill skiers as they hurtle down snow-bound crevasses.


The key to comprehending this fascinating concept lies in the clear and straightforward language and in innovative exhibitions capable of transforming a dull visit to a museum into a rich and enjoyable “voyage of discovery”.Scheduled to open in

The visiting experience

July 2013, the MUSE will offer a lively experience designed with younger generations and families in mind. It will be a place where fun and learning walk hand-in-hand with the pleasure of discovering surprising and unexpected facts about our world.Thanks to its great

attractiveness, the museum is naturally dedicated, together with the MART and with Castello del Buonconsiglio, to acting as a catalyst for Trentino, a region that boasts an intense cultural vocation and is highly worthy of being visited all year round.


The visitor’s journey through the exhibition areas is especially focused on the Alpine environment, on Trentino’s multi-faceted natural landscape, and on the techniques and the results of scientific research as told by the very researchers who are currently involved in this fascinating activity.Starting with the many dinosaur footprint tracks discovered in

Contents the Alps, the museum hosts the largest display of dinosaurs in the Alpine area. Many other exceptional prehistoric exhibits include artefacts made by Neanderthal Man, the first painted rocks and the flint weapons used by the prehistoric hunters of the Ice Age. In the various galleries, visitors can touch fossils and minerals and observe specimens under a

microscope. Smaller children especially will enjoy the story-telling corners where natural history takes on a thousand shapes, including small furry animals they can hold in their hands. The end of the Alpine nature itinerary climaxes in the large greenhouse with live plants that reproduces a tropical forest mountain environment in Tanzania.


The pleasure of knowledge

At the MUSE, it is possible to make and invent every day, with eyes set on the future, under the attentive and curious gaze of the visitors. A personal digital fabrication laboratory, known as the

Fab Lab, opens its doors to young professionals or enthusiasts in order to give them the chance to implement their scientific and technological ideas. Great care and attention is also paid to the

presentation of science and technology through the implementation of a hands-on experience that offers scientific experiments in the form of installations visitors can actively interact with.


Future and nature a marvellous couple

The museum interprets the spirit of Trentino, a region that has actively searched for a model of development in which quality of life and quality of the environment are perceived as a whole, and where scientific and technological knowledge is considered the key tool to the sharing and correct orientation of local decision-

with the consulting assistance of the Natural History Museum of London, has enjoyed the cooperation of Trentino’s university and research foundations. Another important role is played by the museum’s currently ongoing relations with other major Italian and European research centres and science museums.

making concerning development. This “partnership” between Nature and innovation is not only at the basis of the story told by the museum but is also the vision of the future held by the Autonomous Province of Trento. The museum’s project, conducted by the MUSE’s staff and by that of the Renzo Piano Building Workshop


The NetworkSatellite Sites and Centres


The strategic objectives

to be a workshop and show-room of local scientific research and technological innovation

to contribute, together with Castello del Buonconsiglio, the MART and other museums in the Trento province, to in the creation of a high quality cultural hub

to represent an important venue that is capable, in synergy with the tourist promotion operators, to develop tourism-oriented projects and initiatives

to become a catalyst of cultural events in the new city district and to boost the onset of private initiatives connected to the museum’s activities.

To be acknowledged as being a centre of excellence in natural sciences and environmental research

to operate together with the Trentino scientific research system and with international scientific research networks and museums, participating in the creation of a highly qualified scientific research district

to coordinate a network of local institutions for the enhancement and safeguarding of the region

to promote public participation in the debate on scientific issues


to illustrate the connection between science and technology and the ethical commitment for contemporary society

to guide visitors towards scientific knowledge as a forma mentis and as a possible profession

to guide and stimulate towards the technical and scientific curricula and towards a vision of the European Community as a unitary reservoir of knowledge, growth and sociability.

The mission To create awareness about our world’s natural heritage and about the ethical commitment to conserve nature and the environment

to highlight the relationship between local and global, starting from environmental factors

to favour an informal, playful, interactive, participated hands-on approach to science and its technological applications

to create awareness about the effects of our technical and scientific culture and about its importance for contemporary society


Based on civic 19th century collections, the museum became a functional body of the Autonomous Province of Trento in 1964 with the name Museo Tridentino di Scienze Naturali. In 2011, on the occasion of its change in location and mission, it was renamed Museo delle Scienze (Science Museum) - MUSE.It has a full-time staff of 120 people. The scientific research and cultural interpretation sector employs about 50 staff members assigned to the biodiversity, geology, paleontology and landscape sectors. It publishes on its own science magazines and in qualified international magazines, offers its consulting services

The Museum today

to public institutions and is a member of the European scientific research network. The educational sector, operational in all of its branches, each year engages about 60% of the province’s school-going population, with significant numbers also coming from adjacent regions (in the academic year 2011-2012 it hosted 53,000 students). The museum’s educational and academic researchers also participate in European projects, where they experiment new forms of learning. The activities and new languages sector generates 13 exhibitions a year, several of which are of national and international

importance. Together with its local branches, it offers over 650 cultural events that are attended by a total of about 37,000 people annually. The communication of these events each year is performed by over 270 press releases and generates over 1,500 reviews on the local and national media. For years acclaimed by the national and international community for the creativity of its initiatives, the museum today is a member of the network of professionals comprising ICOM Italia, ECSITE, ANMS, ASTL, GBC Italy, DTTN, and participates in the programmes funded by the EU and by LIFE. *Data: October 2012

Museo delle Scienze www.muse.it

MUSE - A new Science Museum

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