Its full programme of activities, headed by the magnificent temporary exhibitions it hosts, as well as the organisation of conferences, courses and masters, together with its educational and training offer, have placed the MARQ once again among the most visited museums in our country in 2011.
.jpg)
In early January, the Ministry of Culture published the visitor figures for 2011 for the 17 state museums under the exclusive management of the Directorate General for Fine Arts and Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture, in addition to the Prado and the Reina Sofía.
If MARQ were among the museums mentioned above, it would be in fourth place in this ranking with 158,527 visits, behind only the Sephardic Museum of Toledo with 282,306 visits; the Museum of Altamira with 257,495 visitors and the Museum of Roman Art in Mérida with 188,783 visits.
In the same way, the public's response to the MARQ's cultural proposals has not only been evident in the number of visitors to the museum, as the number of visits to the archaeological sites dependent on the museum has followed the same line of continued affluence during 2011. Thus, the parks, sites and monuments managed by MARQ and integrated in the museum's cultural offer received 44,616 people.
Visitor figures for State Museums:
In this way, the MARQ brings to a close 2011, the scene of outstanding initiatives developed within the framework of the Spain-Russia Dual Year, which began at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg with the exhibition of the Roman Hand of Lucentum, under the title "A double eagle head found in Lucentum". The album was visited by more than 700,000 people over a period of 4 months. It was followed by the release of the album "Spain 1889", in collaboration with the Institute of History of Material Culture of the Academy of Science of the Russian Federation, (a book that has been the subject of an exchange between authorities and institutions of both countries at the highest level by the Spanish Royal House in commemoration of the Dual Year. Spain-Russia Dual Year 2011) and continued with the international exhibition "Hermitage. Treasures of Russian archaeology at the Marq". with an exceptional visitor, among the 81,668 people who enjoyed it, that of HM Queen Sofia, on 13 October.
The MARQ thus acknowledges the dedication of all its staff and technical staff, as well as that of all the institutions and entities, and especially that of the Diputación de Alicante, who collaborate in offering the whole province and all those who visit us a wide, attractive and first class cultural offer adapted to the demand of an increasingly demanding public, facing this 2012, in which it will celebrate its 10th Anniversary, reaching the figure of 1.500,016 visitors, with renewed expectations, thanking the recognition of the general public who have visited and followed it faithfully throughout these 10 years.
The most outstanding volume of visits in 2011 was recorded in May, following the opening of the exhibition from the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, which brought to Alicante a set of 482 outstanding pieces that had never before travelled to Spain, many of which had never even left this great museum, an example of the vast historical heritage preserved by the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg. Likewise, the number of visitors in February, coinciding with the closing of the exhibition, was particularly noteworthy. "Guardamar del Segura. Archaeology and museum". exhibited by the Marq in the framework of the cycle that the Alicante museum dedicates to local museums. Within this cycle, the museum of La Vila Joiosa, whose most outstanding archaeological pieces can be visited at the Marq until 19 February, took over last December.
In 2011, the trend that began in 2008 was consolidated, with Alicante residents coming in greater numbers to the halls of the Plaza Doctor Gómez Ulla to enjoy, in addition to the aforementioned temporary exhibitions, the exhibits on display in the museum's hall: "Oil Light, "Figures of Life and Death", "A millenary landscape. Agrarian Plotting and Settlers in Ilici". and "Iberian bronze votive offerings from the Sanctuary of La Luz in Murcia". -The exhibition consolidates the exhibition space in the MARQ Hall and its Unique Pieces Programme, which is accompanied by a new line of monographic publications - published by the museum - under the title "...".Al voltant d'una peça"This complements its exhibition offer.
In addition to the people from Alicante, according to their place of origin, visitors from our neighbouring provinces -Murcia, Valencia and Albacete-, followed by visitors from the capital of Spain, Andalusia, Castilla-León and Catalonia.
In addition to the temporary exhibitions on display in the museum's own galleries, the Marq has also organised exhibitions in other venues such as "Xixona, La Clau del Regne". inaugurated last 25th November in the Municipal Hall "El Teatret" of Xixona and which presents, until the end of January, a hundred pieces from the archaeological excavations carried out in the forties of the last century by Father Belda in the Castell de Xixona. Ceramics, bone carvings, etc. are material evidence of the Islamic origin of the present-day Xixona, which, after being conquered by the Christians in 1258, was considered one of the main castles among those that fortified and controlled the most extreme frontier of the kingdom of Aragon.
As well as others in which the MARQ has also participated in 2011, such as "Camins d'Art" organised by the CV Foundation La Llum de les Imatges inaugurated on 22nd March in Alcoi and which continues until the beginning of March this year. Three pieces from the MARQ are on display, two bone idols from the Chalcolithic period, one from El Fontanal (Onil) and the other from Cova de la Barcella (La Torre de les Maçanes), as well as a ceramic panel with the image of "Nuestra Señora la Virgen de Gracia" from the 18th century from the museum's old collections.
Or as the fruit of the collaboration between the Marq and the Museo Arqueológico Regional de la Comunidad de Madrid (MAR), have come together in this museum in Alcalá de Henares, with the presence of two outstanding pieces from the MARQ, the Dama de Cabezo Lucero, as part of the exhibition "Men or gods? A new look at sculpture in the Iberian world". -The Tannur or a portable cooker from the 10th-11th centuries found in Elx for the temporary exhibition "711. Archaeology and History between two worlds", on display at the MAR in Alcalá de Henares until the next day.1 April.
At the sites
A total of 33,658 people visited Lucentum (Alicante) last year. Similarly, the Illeta del Banyets (El Campello) opened its doors to 8,888 people, while the Neolithic Sanctuary of "Pla de Petracos" in Castell de Castells (one of the main rock art sites in the Valencian Community, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1998) and its Interpretation Centre of Rock Art -located in the same town- received 859 visits throughout 2011.
For its part, the Almudaina Almohad Tower - incorporated in August 2009 into the network of archaeological sites, archaeological parks, monuments and interpretation centres that the MARQ and its Foundation manage - received 1,511 visitors. Signifying the important social, cultural and economic impact that these cultural facilities mean for our province and, in particular, for these inland municipalities, remembering that Almudaina has a population of just over 131 inhabitants and Castells 508.
And also for MARQ's younger friends.
In the same way, the Llumiq Club closes the year with a record number of 12,540 registered participants and a record number of participation in the educational activities aimed at children.
A total of 1,307 friends of the Llumiq Club have enjoyed the educational workshops organised at MARQ, the fun and theatrical activities developed at the museum during the Christmas Campaign, the aim of which was to arouse the curiosity of the youngest visitors towards archaeology.
These figures, together with the more than 171 children participating in the Easter Week workshops, plus the 350 participants in the workshops on 18 May and the 3,065 who have enjoyed the initiatives of the summer campaign, represent a total of 4,893 children who have learned and had fun through their participation in the Museum's children's activities.
Visits to the website
Interest in the Marq extends beyond our borders, as revealed by the data on visits to the museum's website (website, blogs and shop), which in 2011 received a total of 164,200 visits and 480,674 page views from more than 100 different countries or regions, a figure that highlights the great interest in the Museum around the world.
MARQ's presence in cyberspace covers both informative and informative aspects. In terms of information, it is interesting to note the parallelism between the graphs of access to the temporary exhibitions (in 2011 the Hermitage exhibition) and access to the website, especially to pages such as "Location", "Timetables", "Prices", etc. This phenomenon has been contrasted with previous international exhibitions organised by MARQ, such as Beauty of the Body. Art and Thought in Ancient Greece, and Seramon: The Enigma of the Mummy, exhibited in 2009 and 2010 respectively.
On the informative side, the blogs are the ones that attract the most attention, despite the fact that some of them are thematic in nature and relate to temporary exhibitions from previous years (www.blogdeldiscobolo.comand www.elblogdelnilo.com), on the other hand, are still active and are very popular with the public, especially in Latin America. For example, "El Blog del Discóbolo" received 27,000 visits in 2011, 75% of which came from Latin America, especially Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Ecuador, Venezuela, Panama and Guatemala.
Finally, this year has been the year of social networks. MARQ's presence on them (Facebook, Twitter and Google+) began in 2010, but it was in 2011 that it developed the most.
On Facebook, where MARQ is about to reach 3,000 followers, the visualisation of publications has increased by more than 500% compared to the previous year and the interaction of our followers has registered an increase of 135% in the number of comments on publications.
Twitter is the most active social network in 2011, not so much in terms of the number of followers, but in terms of communication and relations with other museums, organisations and institutions in the world of culture both inside and outside Spain. Lists such as the one entitled "Spanish Museums" (https://twitter.com/EducaThyssen/#/museos-espa%C3%B1oles) promoted by the Thyssen Museum, to which 75 museums belong, including the MARQ, are a good example of this.
Also, for the first time, a competition was held among MARQ followers on social networks. This was the "Hermitage's CrucigraMarq" in which prizes such as catalogues and educational guides to the Hermitage exhibition and the book "España 1889" were awarded to the winners of a simple crossword puzzle related to the exhibition.
Finally, the TV-MARQ channel, where you can follow the museum's audiovisual productions, both those related to the exhibitions and the conference cycles and other events, has registered an interesting number of visitors. This channel has registered more than 18,500 viewers, with the most watched videos being those related to the Hermitage exhibition (more than 7,000 views), and the video of the exhibition "La Vila Joiosa; Arqueologia i Museu" (La Vila Joiosa; Archaeology and Museum) has been watched by more than 1,600 cybernauts in the month of December alone.
