Kick-starting the panel discussion at the launch of the latest issue of the Institute’s Aspenia journal was the recognition that Milan was, is, and will continue to be Italy’s creative thinking capital. It was suggested that the legacy of the city’s hosting of Expo 2015, and particularly the symbolic importance of the Expo in Città initiative (an online platform promoting events taking place in Greater Milan during the Expo), have enhanced Milan’s reputation, both rewarding present-day efforts and recalling the great tradition of the past that has earned the city its status as a European cultural hub. Cited as historical testament to this was the fruitful pairing of art and science during the Renaissance for the first time, which led Leonardo to become the city’s mascot. Five centuries on, Steve Jobs was seen as following in the same footsteps, demonstrating once more that only those who position themselves at the crossroads between the artistic and scientific world are capable of creating value.
Contemporary culture can and should be a catalyst for growth and development. Indeed, it is usually great artists that have a prodigious ability to live and capture the zeitgeist while espying the future. Italy, with its extraordinary artistic and cultural heritage, has a twofold responsibility: that – enshrined in the country’s Constitution – of preserving the past, and that of seeking to build a future. This duty was viewed as not only incumbent on public institutions, but also on private enterprise, since, as previously noted, by investing in culture and the arts, the business community contributes to raising the knowledge base of a society, thereby laying a more fertile foundation for future value creation.
The engagement parameters and models for big business are changing, so that, for instance, in place of traditional sponsorships, an international company like Enel has chosen to become a founding member of the MAXXI contemporary art museum in Rome, contributing on one hand to the cultural growth of society, while at the same time offering energy efficiency services to the venue. It was noted that MAXXI’s target is to increase private-sector commitments to meet 50% of its needs.
A further company cited as adopting yet another innovative approach was Deutsche Bank, which in a short space of time has managed to put together the largest contemporary art collection in the world, comprising 57,000 works by mostly young up-and-coming contemporary artists. As part of its newly-conceived ArtWorks initiative, pieces from the collection are exhibited in office workspaces for the enjoyment of employees, and, occasionally, to the wider public through much-frequented Open Days.
Also held up as a trailblazer was the Trussardi Foundation, which, in its twenty years of operation, has made contemporary art increasingly more accessible to art lovers by setting up an innovative public access model that includes exhibitions held in private buildings and homes around Milan. Great interest was also expressed in the recent public-private partnership between the Foundation and the City of Milan established through an agreement on two specific projects: the “wheatfield” environmental installation situated amid the skyscrapers of the Porta Nuova district, and the “Grande Madre” exhibition held at the Palazzo Reale to coincide with Expo.
With arts and culture forming such hallmarks of the Italian image abroad, the the Italian Cultural Institute in Paris developed a new partnership model with industry that avoids traditional fundraising. Instead, the focus is on forging partnerships with highly innovative SMEs that invest at least 15% of their turnover in research and development and are keen on helping to promote Italian culture as a trademark of a country at the forefront.
Lastly, the introduction by the Italian government of the cultural donation tax deductibility initiative Art Bonus, which to date has raised 34 million euro in funds for the upkeep of the country’s artistic heritage, was seen as going some way towards reactivating and cementing a virtuous cycle between the public and private spheres, heralding promising results for the future.
