Voces del Prado

A six-month contract

Nuria de Miguel Poch, General Secretary of the Friends of the Museo del Prado Foundation, 1989-What's on

I am Nuria de Miguel, secretary general of the Friends of the Prado Museum Foundation. I arrived at the Foundation and the Museum in 1989. I was young, in my twenties, and I got a call from Ana Martínez de Aguilar, who was the secretary general at the time. The new President had just come on board, the Duke of Soria. It was then that they were starting to develop what had been projected a few years earlier: enlarging the Museum and getting it better settled. I was given a six-month contract, with the proviso that I had to raise as much in the way of funds as the wages I was being paid. Not a big deal but it was a challenge. I remember I got all my siblings together, the eight of us, and said, “You all have to become friends of the Prado Museum," otherwise they'll kick me out." That was the beginning of a very small foundation, with just Ana Martínez de Aguilar, a secretary and myself. We were full of plans and enthusiasm, and I never thought I would end up staying here so long. Mine was a six-month contract and things evolved slowly, and here we are today. It's also true that things went our way. When Francisco Calvo Serraller was named director of the Prado Museum, being one of our trustees in the Foundation, he called on Ana Martínez de Aguilar, who was the secretary general, and I was there in the line-up, because we were just three. Not many years later I was appointed secretary general. One thing leads to another. Since this never stops growing and the Museum is always evolving, there are always new projects. I've never had time to think it over, secondly because I like it, I enjoy myself and never get bored. The work basically consists of managing a group of people, currently 20, plus the volunteers, interns, and students who are here part-time. I have to keep up the relationship with the Foundation's Trust, because they're the ones who decide things, they mark out the things that need to be done, and at the same time we have a relationship with the Prado Museum, with the management, to see what the Museum needs and where we can help. That's what I do, coordinating between the two institutions and developing all the projects proposed by the Museum and approved by the Trust.