Cristina Garcia Married | Salamanca (EFE).- The Casa Lis Art Nouveau and Art Déco Museum in Salamanca has closed the best semester in its history this June thanks in part to new original initiatives that reinforce it as a “singular museum” of Castilla y León.
“We have had a pretty amazing recovery after the pandemic, we are very happy. We have progressively recovered numbers and activities to such an extent that the first semester of this year is surely the strongest in the history of the museum”, explained its director, Pedro Pérez Castro, in an interview with EFE.
This museum of decorative arts, located in a modernist mansion, proposes a time tour that spans from the last decades of the 19th century to World War II, one of the most prolific periods of applied arts.
Inaugurated in 1995, it has managed to establish itself as a must-see for tourists traveling to Salamanca, an attraction capacity that is largely based on the fact that “it is a museum with very different collections from what is found in Castilla y León” and ” It is housed in a singular building”.
“Our main characteristic is that we are different, singular, within what is the leisure and cultural offer of the community,” Pérez Castro pointed out in the characteristic cafeteria of Casa Lis.
In March of this year, the museum doubled the number of visits from March 2022, with a total of 11,661 people and income of 26,557 euros from ticket sales.
The role of women with Jazz background
These good figures coincide with the interest that the temporary exhibition “Las hijas del Jazz” has aroused both among the foreign and local public, which can be visited this Thursday while enjoying a special jazz concert in the patio of the Lis House.
In this exhibition, which can be seen until the first week of July, she exhibits sculptures, paintings, original engravings, posters, photographic and audiovisual reproductions on the role of women during and after the First World War.
“We always have an activity related to the museum’s collections, because a very important part of our public are tourists. We work so that they are well presented, that they are very attractive and original”, indicated Pérez Castro.
New technologies without losing the essence
Casa Lis relies, like most museums today, on new technologies “as long as they contribute to the experience”, but “without forgetting that the most important thing is to see the piece in person”, recalled its director.
One of the museum’s challenges is to attract more public from Salamanca and involve them in participating in activities throughout the year.
“The Friends of the Museum association is essential to link society with the cultural institution, and if we are getting, for example, that the man from Salamanca be a host in the museum for those who visit him in the city”, he explained.
Little by little, and with a lot of work on social networks, Casa Lis manages to attract a younger audience, since the traditional profile of its visitor was a woman between 40 and 60 years of age.
In order to get closer to those who still do not know it, to the students and tourists who come to Salamanca every day, the museum has another strategy that is working: its three art and gift shops spread throughout the city, which serve as an embassy and attracting visitors, as well as a source of income “essential to not depend on anyone and to be able to have their own activity”. EFE