Cult
Edited by Paola Dubini
An Industrial Plan for Culture?
With the inauguration of the new government led by Mario Draghi, attention now turns to the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR),[1] the document that will guide the allocation of public resources in the coming years, and that – in terms of quantity of resources and speed of effort – is destined to have a very significant impact on the growth model pursued by our country. The Prime Minister's reference to Italy as a "cultural great power," and the role of culture not simply in terms of attracting tourists but of a "humanistic heritage of our identity recognized at the international ...
What Will Happen to the Entertainment World?
If there is one thing that Covid-19 has taught us, it is that organizations that deal with culture are also businesses, in the sense that they also have the problem of obtaining the resources necessary to survive and continue their activity. Even when they are publicly-owned or managed, the fact that they can continue to cover their personnel costs does not exempt those who govern them from making decisions regarding the most suitable configuration of processes, necessary investments, and the divestments that are the least painful and impactful on the continuity and overall value generated. Therefore ...
Support the “Culture of Proximity,” Now More Than Ever
We know that many cultural organizations are intrinsically fragile: poorly capitalized, very dependent on cash flow, often self-referential and stuck in niches. We know well that cultural organizations – in particular those “of proximity” such as theaters, museums, libraries, and third sector entities with prevalently local aims and funding – are going through a very difficult period from a financial standpoint. And finally, we know that they are in excellent company: apart from a few sectors and a very small number of companies that are deriving great economic benefits from satisfying ...
Culture, Wellbeing, and Health. Towards a Cultural Welfare?
The relationship between culture and health has been the subject of increasing interest in recent years, in particular thanks to the results of scientific research and some interesting experiences. Numerous epidemiological, observational, and longitudinal scientific studies, conducted principally in the English-speaking world and Northern Europe, have made clear that active cultural participation, and the intelligent use of free time more in general, are allies in prolonging life expectancy, active aging, post-operative recovery, and the slower aggravation of degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's ...
Paolo Grassi: A Cultural Manager Ahead of his Time
In 2020, being a cultural manager is a fashionable profession. Actually, cultural activity in general is appreciated more for its trendiness than its expansion. Paolo Grassi was a cultural manager ahead of his time. He began his activity around the middle of the 1900s, a period when the combination of culture and economics did not yet exist. He broke down the structure of how theaters were organized in his time, which were the children of closed attitudes linked to Fascism, and he built new ones, aimed not only at artistic growth, but economic growth as well. The idea that took hold during his ...
Culture at the Time of the Coronavirus
Among the measures taken in recent days by the authorities in charge of dealing with COVID-19 is the decision to suspend not only educational activities in schools and universities, public meetings and events, but also the activity of museums, cinemas, theaters, and other cultural locations. And also to keep religious ceremonies to a minimum. It is evident that this was a difficult decision, with a large individual and collective impact. It is just as evident that the economic repercussions in many sectors will be considerable, and long-lasting. The world of culture has reacted very rapidly and ...
Culture as a Business Tool
What is the relationship between businesses and cultural value? How can the latter increase the competitiveness of the former? And what tools can be used to invest in and develop the cultural sector? Economics and culture are only apparently different worlds. If on the one hand there is the business sector, with the aim of achieving financial results, on the other there is culture, with its multiple declinations in terms of identity, history, artistic expression, creative atmosphere, and social sustainability, that can act as an irreplaceable factor of growth and sustainable development for businesses ...
Patronage is the Right Path
In the period of profound transformation we are living through - the development of new technologies, our bombardment with information, the environmental crisis, the phenomenon of large-scale migration, and economic challenges - the man of the new millennium is experiencing a moment of deep disorientation, of which art is an accurate reflection. In what way? The change in languages, the innovation in the way of using art works and their pervasiveness in our daily life, have certainly made art more ambiguous, uncertain, and versatile. Yet at the same time, many of the great changes that have occurred ...
What GDP for culture
On October 7, the results of two studies were published that deal with the issue of the relationship between cultural heritage and wealth generation: the second edition of the Cultural and Creative cities monitor, published by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Union, that compares 190 cities in 30 European countries,[1] and the Boston Consulting Group study on autonomous national museums, their results and their impact in the first years of their institution after the Franceschini of 2014.[2] The essential message that reached public opinion from the two studies is that state museums ...
Palazzo Te and the Promotion of the Local Territory
Palazzo Te is one of the most important European Renaissance palaces, designed and built by Giulio Romano, first a student of Raphael in Rome, and then invited to Mantua by Federico Gonzaga on the suggestion of Baldassar Castiglione. The commission was sumptuous, and the resulting design is extraordinary. A painter from the Cadore area who was a friend of Giulio Romano, Tiziano Vecellio, would paint the potraits of the three protagonists of the story (one is in Palazzo Te, one at the Prado, and one at the Louvre), almost to immortalize the outcome. The palace grew thanks to the tireless work of ...