Italy

La Cultura non si ferma (“Culture never stops”; Nationwide, Italy)

“Culture never stops!” is a page of the Cultural Heritage Ministry website, which brings together virtual initiatives organized by State-owned cultural sites and the entertainment, music and audiovisual organisations during the Covid-19 emergency.

Background

The Ministry of Culture (Italian: Ministero della Cultura – MiC, previously Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism) is the ministry of the Government of Italy in charge of national museums and the historical monuments. MiC’s headquarters are located in the historic Collegio Romano Palace (in central Rome) and the current Minister of Culture is Dario Franceschini.

It was set up in 1974 as the Ministry for Cultural Assets and Environments. The Ministry is made up of a variety of internal divisions, including:

  • Ufficio di gabinetto
  • Segreteria del ministro
  • Ufficio stampa
  • Ufficio legislative
  • Organismo Indipendente di Valutazione della performance

And associated organs:

  • Regional Directorates for Cultural Heritage and Landscape
  • Superintendencies for Architectural Heritage and Landscape)
  • Superintendencies for Historical Patrimony, Artistic and Ethno-Anthropological Heritage)
  • The Carabinieri Headquarters for the Protection of Cultural Heritage
  • National Archives
  • National Libraries
  • Museums

Description

The Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism (MIBACT), following the measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus with the closure of museums, archaeological parks, cinemas and theaters, initiated digital strategy to ensure the possibilities to enjoy the extraordinary national cultural heritage.

Collection of the content has been created, thanks to the commitment of state cultural sites and many national cultural institutions that participated. The descriptions have been divided into six sections – Museums, Books, Cinema, Music, Education and Theatre. The platform provided a list of videos, web content and social virtual initiatives that allowed people to get in touch with art and culture being at home.

In order to get the information about various initiatives, it was possible to choose a particular section – divided by Regions – and select the content.

Cultural sites could to be included to the platform promoted by MiBACT using  the hashtag #culturanonsiferma and through the social media profiles @mibact, @museitaliani.

Impact

This first virtual initiative named “L’Italia Chiamò” (Italy called), a solidarity marathon broadcast live in streaming on March 13th from six in the morning to midnight reached almost 717,000 views only on the Mibact channel. Museum and archaeological parks directors described the activities in progress in their institutes in this period of forced closure.

After this success, the MiBACT YouTube channel continued to publish other content made by the staff of archives, libraries, museums, archaeological parks and state cultural institutes in order to allow virtual visits, sharing and transmission of knowledge. Now it reached 330 audiovisual contributions. 

At the same time, MiBACT has opened the page www.beniculturali.it/laculturanonsiferma on its website. It included thousands of virtual appointments available up to now by state cultural sites and by various national cultural institutions, divided into the categories: education, museums, archives and libraries, theater, music and cinema.

Currently the platform is not active anymore, it is not possible to reach the content published before.

Interpretation

References