The MAN was opened to the public in 1999; it is housed in a building that dates back to the 1920s. The first nucleus of the collection was born by bringing together some public collections; then the collection was enriched over time with new acquisitions and the activity finally extended to the territorial context until acquiring managerial autonomy in 2004. The MAN is a permanent public institution, the only one of its kind in Sardinia, dedicated to the study, conservation and promotion of modern and contemporary art. The museum pursues its cultural objectives through multiple activities, which it carries out both within the museum premises and throughout the territory. It is the idea of ​​an “open museum” that asserts itself, a permanent laboratory of artistic investigation and experimentation, a space for production and communication where memory and innovation, research and dissemination, global thought and local action can coexist side by side. The MAN’s primary activity is to organise temporary exhibitions within the framework of a dynamic cultural perspective in which local identity coexists and is further strengthened in the approach with the global reality. In line with its mission, the MAN offers exhibitions dedicated to artists and art history movements ranging from the 19th to the 21st century and experimental projects aimed at the languages ​​of the strictest contemporariness.