Reform of the cultural heritage: economic growth through art?

After years of cuts to the culture budget, to our great satisfaction, we are witnessing some positive signs in the management of the Italian cultural heritage, thanks to both an increase effort in finding resources for cultural projects and a push towards the “modernization” of the sector. In 2015, in fact, the cultural heritage and, in particular, the Italian museum system have undergone several changes. The many innovations introduced by the Italian Government includes the Art-Bonus, a permanent 65% tax relief for donations in support of culture, extra million euros allocated each year for Museums needs, or the recent ministerial decree for the right of private non-profit associations/foundations to run state cultural properties not open to public use or not adequately employed. Just to mention a few initiatives.

It‘s also recent news the appointment of 20 new Directors for the management of the most prominent public museums in Italy, with the aim to overcome the lack of strategic management of the economic, financial, organizational and marketing issues which should be considered by those who run a museum or organizing a socio-cultural event.

Feeling directly involved, thanks to 50 years in the exhibition service business, having helped set up dozens of museums in Italy and the world, we really hope that this is the direction our legislators are going, not only to create resources for the Italian museum industry, but also to trace the strategies that can guide the recovery of the sector. Our artistic heritage, so unique in the world, has to be transformed into an opportunity for economic growth, right now only partially exploited. Suffice it to say that Britain, a very marketing-oriented country, has been able to leverage its showbiz, music, publishing, film and theatre industries enough to generate a turnover of around 85 billion euro. In light of that, the existing 78.6 billion generated in Italy in 2014 by the “cultural sectors” give us an idea of ​​how much it can still be done.

Tosetto will continue to work alongside museums and designers to ensure that our cultural heritage will be increasingly managed in a “modern” way. The consumer, more and more, needs to be engaged with emotional storytelling and new multimedia tools, reminding us that we can truly love only what we can understand and that, therefore, art, to be loved, needs to reach our hearts deeply.