MACA — Museo de Arte Contemporáneo

MACA is a contemporary art museum in Alicante's old town, housed in the Baroque Casa de la Asegurada of 1685, opposite the Basilica of Santa María. It shows 20th-century art, including works by Picasso, Miró, Dalí and Chillida, as well as pieces by Eusebio Sempere and Juana Francés.

MACA, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Alicante, is in the old town, opposite the Basilica of Santa María. It occupies the Casa de la Asegurada, a Baroque building from 1685 considered the oldest civil building in the city. It was originally a granary and later served, among other things, as a prison, a school and an archive. The museum grew out of the collection donated to the city by Alicante-born artist Eusebio Sempere; the first display opened in 1977. After renovation and extension designed by architects Sol Madridejos and Juan Carlos Sancho, it reopened in March 2011 as MACA. A modern travertine and glass wing was added to the historic building, and the exhibition spreads over several floors. The 20th-Century Art collection includes 177 works by 114 artists. Among them are pieces by Picasso, Miró, Dalí, Kandinsky, Chillida, Tàpies, Giacometti, Vasarely and Bacon. A separate collection of 513 works from all stages of his career is devoted to Sempere himself, one of Spain's leading exponents of geometric abstraction and optical and kinetic art. The third collection features works by Juana Francés, a founding member and the only woman of the El Paso group. The permanent collections rotate roughly every four months, and the museum also runs temporary exhibitions, workshops and talks. Reviews often mention the works by Picasso and Dalí, the kinetic art and the building itself. One visitor found the collection small and poorly explained, and several complain about the staff and the toilets. The entrance and toilets are wheelchair accessible. A visit fits easily into a walk around the old town, as the Basilica of Santa María stands opposite the museum.