NOW ON VIEW
MEDITATION IN MOTION
Foot steps to the sublime
This unique exhibition explores the world of Tibetan sacred dance, from its origins, first experienced in mystical visions and lucid dreams and then passed from Master to disciple, in an unbroken lineage over centuries.
THE NAMKHAI COLLECTION
The MACO was founded by Prof. Chögyal Namkhai Norbu with the scope of sharing with a wider public the Namkhai Collection. The Collection, consisting of over 5000 artefacts, includes works of art of inestimable value and profound cultural significance, crafts and costumes, votive objects of considerable historic importance, as well as, a significant collection of manuscripts, directly related to Prof. Namkhai’s research and a media archive documenting many aspects of Tibetan and Central Asian culture.
PROJECT SPACE
In the Summer of 2017 we inaugurated the Project Space, two large galleries on the second floor of the MACO. Project Space is dedicated to exhibition projects which explore the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of Asia and promote contemporary dialogues between East and West. To date, the Project Space has hosted 3 exhibitions: Lhasa and Beyond (2017), Sky Writing: The Calligraphy of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu (2018) and Meditation in Motion: The World of Tibetan Sacred Dance (2020). We firmly believe that contemporary art represents a universal language, that helps to build bridges towards a deeper understanding and appreciation of our multicultural world heritage.
"CULTURE IS EVOLUTION"
Chögyal Namkhai Norbu
Chögyal Namkhai Norbu. Tashi Delek, 2016. Gold on paper.
Chögyal Namkhai Norbu. Tashi Delek, 2016. Gold on paper.
RESEARCH SPACE
OUR DIGITAL SPACE
This year, with the support of the Union of Italian Buddhists (UBI) and the Municipality of Arcidosso, MACO began a very fruitful collaboration with the British Museum’s Research Space team, to create a virtual museum. Research Space (RS) is the best software in the world for detecting and mapping the intricate interdependencies of our cultural heritage, adopting the standard for documentation developed by UNESCO, the CIDOC-CRM cultural heritage ontology. Thanks to enhancements to RS that we have funded, they will implement a long-term digital preservation platform and a virtual collaborative environment. This will permit us to store and share digital resources and to build exhibitions, online with our curators, collaborators and institutional partners around the world. RS also will help our visitors, construct connections and reveal relationships within our exhibitions, to construct their own personal tours, enriched by the digital resources contained in our archive.
We are pleased to announce that the work on the restoration of the building of the former chancellery of Arcidosso, home of the MACO and the Namkhai Collection are complete.
The restoration was financed with the support of the European Union, the Italian Ministry of Culture, the Tuscan Region, the Municipality of Arcidosso, FAR Maremma, under the auspices of the EU Leader Program (PSR 2014/2020 7.6.2 / CUP ARTEA 847668).