The provision of local cultural services varies greatly across the Country, and the State has no direct competence in this matter, which is often dealt with on a voluntary basis by the municipalities. This is why there is no nationwide statistical coverage of cultural centres, civic recreation centres, reading centres, cultural youth clubs, etc. Interrogation of the National Business Registry ASIA[1] succeeds in identifying 6,202 local units of “other entertainment and leisure activities“ (NACE code 93299) in 2019. In the 1970s and 1980s, multipurpose cultural centres, usually funded by municipalities and run by cultural associations, were frequently found in Piedmont, Lombardy, Trentino and Alto Adige, Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany and Umbria, although they have become very rare. Libraries tend to replace some of their functions.
Other local actors of cultural and artistic promotion are independent marching bands[2] and singing choirs. There are about 2.500 marching bands, although there is no official registry; they are active all over the country, often even in small villages. Choral associations[3] number about 2.700, and they have similar characteristics.
ARCI – the Italian Cultural Recreational Association ARCI – is the largest and oldest Italian cultural and social promotion association, with hundreds of thousands of members and many associations, clubs, “case del popolo” (people’ houses) and mutual aid societies throughout Italy. ARCI was founded in 1957 in Florence as an organisation for the defence and development of ‘case del popolo’ and recreational clubs. It is heir to the mutualist tradition of the popular and anti-fascist movements that helped build and consolidate Italian democracy based on the Constitution. The promotion of cultural activities related to cinema, theatre, music, visual arts, and reading is the core of ARCI’s associative project. Access to and dissemination of knowledge, popular education, and expression of people’s creativity are factors of civil and social growth, and essential elements of democracy and participation. ARCI develops strategies and projects in the field of lifelong learning and training and cultural welfare.
Community artistic creation is not a priority in the Italian national policies, and very few Regional administrations intervene in this domain. The Directorate General for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture[4], however, holds an Office for Cultural and Creative Enterprises and one for Cultural creation for peripheral areas and urban regeneration.
Gai Giovani artisti Italiani[5] – The Association for the Circuit of Young Italian Artists is a body that brings together 26 local authorities (Municipalities and Regions), which has been in existence since 1989, with the aim of supporting youth creativity through training, promotion and research initiatives. The Association aims to document activities, offering services, organising training and promotional opportunities in favour of young people under 35 working in the fields of creativity, arts and entertainment. This is done through permanent or temporary initiatives that promote the circulation of information and events, both at national and international level. In 2001, GAI launched a website that is one of the most visited of its kind, with opportunities, information and resources for the art and performing arts public[6]. It also contains an online national database that is constantly updated with over 15,000 files on young creatives in the various artistic areas. The Association also carries out editorial work with the publication of catalogues and books linked to its initiatives, and carries out research projects and sector analyses.
Some regional administrations support, on a voluntary basis, some forms of cultural and artistic practice, production or protection, like literary or theatre productions in local dialects, folk music and dance, and traditional crafts.
In 2015, 45.9% of the resident population aged six years and over (around 26 million and 300 thousand individuals) expresses themselves predominantly in Italian at home and 32.2% in both Italian and their dialect. Only 14% (8 million 69 thousand people) use, instead, mainly a dialect. 6.9% use another language (about 4 million individuals; in 2006 they were about 2 million 800 thousand).
There has been a significant increase in the use of languages other than Italian and dialects within families, especially among 25-34 year-olds (from 3.7% in 2000, to 8.4% in 2006, to 12.1% in 2015).
For all age groups, the exclusive use of dialects is decreasing, even among the elderly, among whom it remains a widespread custom: in 2015, 32% of over 75s spoke a dialect exclusively or prevalently in the family (37.1% in 2006).
In 2015, 90.4% of the population had an Italian mother tongue. Compared to 2006, the estimate of those who declare themselves to be of foreign mother tongue has increased (from 4.1% to 9.6% in 2015)[7].
Several minority communities[8] in Italy, differing in language, cultural traditions and socio-economic conditions, live:
- In border regions: Valledostans, German speakers, Ladins, Slovenes. They enjoy different levels of administrative autonomy and different forms of protection;
- Dispersed throughout the territory (Arbëreshë/Albanese, Greek, Franco-Provençal, Catalan, Croatian, Occitan);
- In specific regions, as in the case of Sardinia and Friuli Venezia Giulia. Sardinian is recognised as a language to be protected. In Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Friulian is included among the minority languages.
The linguistic minorities recognised and protected by law are: Arbёreshё/Albanian, Catalan, German languages, Griko, Croatian, French, French-Provençal, Friulan, Ladin, Occitan, Sardinian, and Slovenian.
In 2007, The Ministry of Culture created a Central Institute for the Intangible Heritage[9] for the valorisation, in Italy and abroad, of the demoethno-anthropological cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible, and of the expressions of cultural diversity present in the territory. It also promotes training, study and dissemination activities, collaborating with universities, public and private bodies, and national and international research centres.
The Institute promotes training, study, research and dissemination activities in collaboration with universities, research centres, and public and private bodies.
[1] http://dati.istat.it/#
[2] https://www.bandamusicale.it/bande/italia/
[3] https://www.italiacori.it/
[4] https://www.beniculturali.it/ente/direzione-generale-creativita-contemporanea.
[5] https://www.giovaniartisti.it/lassociazione
[6] www.giovaniartisti.it
[7] https://www.istat.it/it/archivio/207961.
[8] https://www.miur.gov.it/lingue-di-minoranza-in-italia
[9] https://icpi.beniculturali.it/
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