Arte en sedamuseos y colecciones museográficas de bordado en la ciudad de Lorca

Abstract

The city of Lorca houses significant silk and gold embroidery collections, which have led to the creation of three museums associated with this artistic tradition. Despite the fact that these museums are relatively young, they are rooted in a centuries-old tradition of local festivities, such as Holy Week and celebrations around the city's Patron Saint, which keeps the embroidery alive year after year. The fundamental goal of this research is to determine whether this tradition has given rise to a new type of museum in Lorca. To this end, it analyses the influence of prior temporary exhibitions that were instrumental in their creation, such as the Ibero-American Exhibition of Seville in 1929, or more recent ones that were key to their development. It was particularly explored the 2001 exhibition by the Santander Central Hispano Foundation in Madrid, which marked a turning point in how the embroidery pieces are displayed. The thesis examines how embroidery has led to the establishment of three key institutions: the muBBla- Museo de Bordados Paso Blanco, the MASS- Museo Azul de la Semana Santa, and the ciuFRONT- Medieval Museum of Lorca. These museums, tied to the city's religious and civic celebrations, play a crucial and quintessential role in the preservation and dissemination of Lorca’s embroidery, solidifying and strengthening their status as guardians of Lorca's cultural heritage. This research begins by defining what constitutes a museum and conducts an in-depth investigation of these institutions from various perspectives: history, collections, architecture, exhibitions, services, and management. This study is pioneering in comprehensively addressing the relationship between these museums and embroidery, as previous research has been limited, partial, and focused solely on the embroidery itself. The structure of this dissertation is based on the tradition of Lorca’s embroidery, addressing the religious and cultural expressions that support it. Furthermore, it proposes improvements for its teaching and preservation in the future. It also compiles and dissects the regulations applicable to museums, distinguishing between museums and museographic collections, with a particular focus on museums linked to the Catholic Church, given that two of the museums studied belong to Holy Week brotherhoods. A second section focuses on exploring the three museums in Lorca devoted to embroidery and provides an overview of international museographic proposals from France, the United Kingdom, and China. Since the focus of the thesis is on the museums at such and not on the embroidery itself, an exhaustive and precise classification of the pieces is not provided. Nonetheless, some of the most representative ones are described, recognising their importance for understanding the museums. Despite each museum presenting a different exhibition narrative —the History of Salvation, Holy Week, and the medieval history of Lorca— they all share embroidery as the foundation of their heritage. The main conclusion is that the embroidery tradition in Lorca has driven to the creation of a new type of museum, based on this unique form of art. While it cannot be labelled as a "typology of embroidery museums" per se, a new groundbreaking category of museums linked to this art form through its festivities has indeed been established in Lorca. These museums, in addition to contributing to the cultural identity of the city, are key to the region's tourism, combining history, art, and tradition.