MACBA, the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art

The heart of the Raval is home to the MACBA ( Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona in Catalan), a museum with an extraordinary collection of contemporary art from the mid-20th century to the present day that shows the evolution of avant-garde art. An unstoppable evolution, which MACBA promotes with numerous research and educational activities.

The imposing white and luminous building that houses the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona is itself a work of great value: the author is Richard Meier, an important American architect to whom we owe other famous works such as the Getty Center in Los Angeles and the Ara Pacis Museum in Rome.

Opened in 1995, the MACBA has become in a few years an essential reference point for all art lovers and a very popular attraction among tourists who love the creative and dynamic soul of a modern and tireless city like Barcelona.

A museum to visit and to return to: the MACBA’s is a living collection, constantly expanding, and the works on display are constantly changing, for a practical reason (it is impossible to exhibit all the works owned by the museum!) but also an ideological one, that is, to let the visitor experience the continuous evolution that characterises the ferment of contemporary art.

Things to do at the MACBA

The original core of MACBA’s museum collection consists of works by Catalan, Spanish and international artists, with a focus on South America and Eastern Europe. Recently, the museum collection has expanded to include works by artists from North Africa and the Arab world, and the museum’s catalogue currently contains around 5,000 works.

There are no permanent exhibitions in the museum: the museum is conceived as a ‘living collection‘ and the works on display are constantly changing to give visibility to as many artists and currents as possible.

To find out what exhibitions are currently on at the time of your visit, you can consult the museum’s official website by doing a search in the Collection Holdings section using the “Currently on Show” filter.

MACBA Admission Tickets

MACBA entrance tickets can be purchased online or at the museum’s ticket offices no later than half an hour before closing time. An inexpensive Carnet Amic Familia family ticket is also available, which entitles two adults and their children to admission to the museum and is valid for one year.

For a few euros more than the regular ticket for a single person, you can purchase the annual ticket, which entitles unlimited access to the museum for one country. If you buy the ordinary ticket and once you leave you would like to return to visit the museum, you can buy the annual ticket and pay only the difference.

Children, the elderly, certain professional categories and holders of tourist passes including BCN Card Express are entitled todiscounted or free admission.

Skip-the-line ticket for the MACBA

The quickest and easiest way to visit MACBA is to purchase a skip-the-line ticket directly online, thus avoiding wasting time at the ticket office.

Combined tickets

If you want to visit other museums in Barcelona together with the MACBA, we recommend acquistare online l'ArtTicket Barcelona: the savings are considerable compared to buying individual museum tickets. The museums and galleries included in ArtTicket Barcelona are: the MACBA (Museum of Contemporary Art), the Picasso Museum, the Antoni Tàpies Foundation, the Joan Miró Foundation, the MNAC (Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya) and the CCCB (Centre de Cultura Contemporània).

Guided Tours

MACBA organises one or more guided tours of the museum’s collections led by the staff on a daily basis: an excellent opportunity to learn about the cultural and social background of each work and thus better appreciate it.

Guided tours do not need to be booked, just turn up at the meeting point a few minutes before the start of the tour. The tour calendar is available on the MACBA website or at the ticket offices.

Groups may instead book a private tour with an authorised guide.

How to get to the MACBA

Barcelona’s Museum of Contemporary Art is centrally located in the Raval district, about a 10-minute walk from Plaça de Catalunya.

The easiest way to get there is to take the metro and get off at Universitat (lines L1 and L2) or Catalunya or Liceu (L3); the museum area is also served by numerous buses. If arriving by car, the recommended car park is in Plaça dels Àngels.