The priorities of national cultural policies are connected to government main political and economic strategies. In the period 2016-2021, Dario Franceschini headed the Ministry of Culture from 22 February 2014 to 1 June 2018, followed by Alberto Bonisoli from 1 June 2018 to 5 September 2019 and again by Dario Franceschini from 5 September 2019. Since 2014, the Minister Franceschini fostered an extensive reorganization of the Ministry, that he considered “the country’s more relevant economic ministry”. The increase in visitors and income from State cultural sites before the pandemic is one of the most evident effects of the new valorization policies, implemented through initiatives such as the autonomy granted to various institutions, the creation of regional museums, the renewal of management, the free admission every first Sunday of the month, etc. (see chapters 1.1 and 1.2.2).
The main problem that the Ministries of Culture, expression of different government coalitions, had to face since the eve of the new century was the strong shortage in the public financing of culture, with severe constraints and drastic cuts inflicted since the 2000s on Ministry’s budget. From 2008 to 2015, in particular, allocations from this budget were increasingly reduced, both in absolute terms and as a percentage of total State budget expenditure (from 0.28% to 0.19%), highlighting a constant underestimate by governments of the role of the cultural sector for the national economy and social cohesion. This downward trend has partially changed in the last years. The total current transfers to households and social institutions, businesses and public administrations correspond to 0.26% of the 2019 Ministry’s budget (see chapter 7.1.3). Total public expenditure on “cultural services” (both at central and local level) also underwent a strong decrease between 2015 and 2016, followed by a stable growth, with higher values at the local level (see chapter 7.1.1).
In Italy, some important non-profit organizations and entities with public participation contribute to enriching the debate on cultural management, playing an advocacy role towards the policy makers also in encouraging reforms and innovation in the sector. Among these: Fondazione Scuola dei beni e delle attività culturali (Foundation School of Cultural Heritage and Activities), ICOM Italia (International Council of Museums), Federculture[1], ANCI (National Association of Italian Municipalities)[2], Associazione per l’Economia della Cultura (Association of Cultural Economics)[3], Mecenate 90 Association[4], Civita Association[5], Fitzcarraldo Foundation[6], Symbola Foundation[7], etc.
The main challenges in which cultural policies and public debate have focused in the last years concern the following strategic issues:
- education, audience development, cultural participation and consumption;
- cultural professionals, new skills for public institutions and the role of artists;
- public/private governance models for cultural organizations and the rise of new business models;
- new funding opportunities for culture from private resources (see chapters 7.2 and 7.3);
- digital transformation;
- the role of the Third Sector for local development and social/cultural innovation;
- the adoption of systems and metrics for measuring the impacts of culture.
Although audience development, in particular, is at the center of the public debate, the efforts of policy makers and cultural operators for the democratization of cultural participation have often been unsuccessful, as demonstrated by the rates of cultural participation, which vary across the spectrum of socio-economic inequality (see chapter 6.1). Probably, due to a lack of aptitude for governing cultural participation and to the complex inter-institutional system of competencies at State level and the plurality of configurations to which cultural matters are subject in regional and municipal administrations, cultural consumption rates in Italy are particularly depressed, especially among citizens with low incomes and low levels of education and in the most disadvantaged areas of the country. Therefore, in Italy there is still a need to provide a quality educational and cultural offer in the less developed areas of the South.
Within this context, hundreds of public and private cultural organizations have worked hard to make their offer more accessible (with effective initiatives also addressed to the economic barriers to cultural consumption), through practices from education to marketing, from communication to digital engagement (see chapter 6.1).
However, one of the basic weaknesses of strategies dedicated to the expansion and diversification of audiences derives from the scarcity of available data and measurement tools adopted by policy makers and cultural practitioners. Deep knowledge of audience and evaluation of its satisfaction index represent an essential moment for defining the action strategies to be planned and supported. The monitoring of the quality of the services offered to the public by cultural institutes represents one of the most important challenge for defining the future cultural policies, in particular as regards the improvement and modernization of the methods of cultural use of spaces and collections. In this direction, there is still to be invested also in the field of training of museum staff and raising the awareness on the issues of public knowledge. ICOM Italia (the Italian Committee of the International Council of Museums) is committed to assisting the central and peripheral structures of the Ministry in defining guidelines and innovative organizational tools in line with international standards, giving priority to the question of professional skills.
On another level, a key issue in the context of cultural innovation strategies is represented by the digital transformation that cultural and creative organizations are facing. Information and data relating to the digitization of museums (see chapter 2.4) show that only a minority of these have developed a strategic plan with a roadmap for innovation, while most of the institutes in Italy suffer from resource problems (financial and professional) and from a lack of awareness about the real opportunities of technologies, both in terms of conservation/protection of heritage and valorization/promotion.
[1] https://www.federculture.it/
[2] https://www.anci.it/
[3] https://www.economiadellacultura.it/
[4] https://mecenate90.it/
[5] https://www.civita.it/
[6] https://www.fitzcarraldo.it/
[7] https://www.symbola.net/
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