The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum and UDIT combine great works of painting and training in fashion design

• The students have been inspired by Impressionist and Renaissance works from the permanent collection.
• Two collections worked on for months will see the light of day at the shows on the official calendar of MBFW Madrid.

The Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza and UDIT, University of Design and Technology have joined forces to develop a unique collaboration through which more than 50 students of the Official University Degree in Fashion Design will reinterpret different works from the museum's permanent collection, belonging to the Impressionist and Renaissance periods, to turn them into the protagonists of the collections that will be presented at UDIT's catwalk shows at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Madrid in September 2023 and February 2024.

The agreement, signed by Evelio Acevedo, managing director of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, and Rosa Pérez Sanz, president of UDIT, also encompasses two other training areas of the university: Graphic Design and Product Design. Students from these areas have been able to work on different design projects that will have the opportunity to be exhibited and sold in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum shop in the near future.

The academic collaboration between UDIT and the Thyssen Museum began in February of this year, when the students of the Degree in Fashion Design had the opportunity to enjoy several private visits in which the artistic currents of the Renaissance and Impressionism were explained to them, showing them the most representative works of each of them. From that moment on, the process of documentation, research and work on the different collections began, accompanied by professors and professionals from the university and the museum.

The collaboration agreement also includes the publication of a book edited by the university and the museum, the organisation of a photo session at the museum with the pieces designed by the students and the exhibition of some of these garments in the Thyssen shop.

The main objective of this collaboration is to support the talent of young designers by turning their work into a showcase for the image of the city of Madrid, as well as to bring art closer to the new generations through the initiative.

UDIT is the first University of Design and Technology in Spain, a promoter of creative industries, and represents the culmination of more than 20 years of ESNE's educational project.

The largest university campus specialising in Design and Technology in Spain is located in the heart of Madrid and has more than 13,000 m2 of state-of-the-art facilities. This pioneering institution has more than 2,300 students in its classrooms who are training to become the new generations that will drive the creative industries.

In the 2023-2024 academic year, UDIT will offer nine Official University Degrees: Fashion Design, Multimedia and Graphic Design, Interior Design, Product Design, Design and Development of Video Games and Virtual Environments, Audiovisual Design and Illustration, Fashion Management and Communication, Animation, Advertising and Brand Creation.

At postgraduate level, UDIT will offer seven Official University Master's Degrees in the next academic year: User Experience, Graphic Design, Interior Design, Illustration, Product Design, Artificial Intelligence and Fashion Design.

The Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza is the public institution that houses one of the most important pictorial collections in the world, with almost 900 works of art gathered over seven decades by the Thyssen-Bornemisza family. The Spanish state acquired the collection in 1993. Dürer, Raphael, Titian, Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Monet, Rénoir, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Morisot, Picasso, Hopper, Rothko... are just some of the great names in the history of painting present in the museum, which offers a journey through the history of Western art from the 12th to the 20th century. Since 2004 the museum has also been exhibiting works for hire from the private collection of Baroness Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza.