The museums of Barcelona house a very valuable heritage. Their primary function is to lead and take part in the conservation and popularization of that heritage, encouraging different sections of the public to get to know it by means of exhibitions and hands-on activities.
This is the context that underpins exhibition ventures such as the cycle Mediterranean at the Museu d'Hist de la Ciutat , which presents the Mediterranean as a space of cultural interchange, and the exhibition París - Barcelona , produced in collaboration with the Musée Picasso in Paris. In addition to displaying their own collections and hosting a wide range of temporary exhibitions, the museums also run a wide variety of activities: itineraries and evening visits, workshops for schools, courses and cycles of lectures and live music. Such activities are coming up more and more to configure the idea of the museum as a driving force of the city's cultural dynamic. The museums work to define differentiated types of provisions that are oriented to specific audiences. They also organize programs such as Summer in the Museums and Christmas in the Museums.
The level of public response is one of the keys to gauge the success in the ongoing task of improving the city's museums. The number of people who visit Barcelona 's fifty or so public and private museums each year is currently running at 7 million. Of particular note in terms of number of visits are the Museo Picasso (with its important collection of the painter's work, in addition to temporary exhibitions), and the Fundación Joan Miró .
