Palazzo Vitari is an 18th century building located in the historic center in a dominant position over the wide valley, with an original round-arched portal with geometric Greek decorations. Above the portal and along the entire facade runs a long balcony with wrought iron railings.
The MAON, or Museum of 19th and 20th Century Art, was inaugurated on May 4, 2004 on the initiative of the “A. Capizzano” Center for Art and Culture of Rende.
In turn, the Center named after the artist Achille Capizzano from Rende, was founded in 1997 on the initiative of the Honorable Sandro Principe, who called together professionals, university professors and entrepreneurs in an association aimed at promoting culture and art.
After seven years of intense exhibition activity, the Center has acquired stable collections and established the Museum, which was born from a project by the art critic Tonino Sicoli.
It is one of the few southern cultural institutions dedicated to modern and contemporary art, and is located in Palazzo Vitari, in the historic center of Rende, granted on loan for use for twenty years by the municipal administration, which includes it among the structures of the Rende Museum Center, together with the Civic Museum and the Museum of the Present, intended as a cultural laboratory and exhibitions on current events.
The MAON enjoys the patronage of the BSAE Superintendency of Calabria and has the recognition, among the Places of the Contemporary, of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities.
The use of an IT platform, accessible to the public through a wi-fi network and a consultation system via touch-screen or handheld devices and QR-Code, although already known but little used in the communication of Italian Museums, even less so in Calabria, make the MAON at the forefront for the adoption of interactive solutions.
