PART 3: Involvement of the Community 

In Italy, schools are required by law to prepare a Curriculum Plan (Piano dell’offerta Formativa) which must include optional extra-curricular activities of an artistic nature available for the students of that school to participate in during the afternoon. As part of the Scuole aperte (Open Schools) project, each school or network of schools can apply for funding for arts activities from the Ministry of Education. In the large majority of European countries, specialist arts teachers, even if they are primarily trained as (professional) artists in a consecutive model, also need to undergo professional teacher training at some point. This means that in order to be able to teach in general public schools (and not only extra-curricular classes, in which professional artists can be involved in several countries, for example in Greece, Italy, Finland, Slovakia and Slovenia), professional artists need to complete professional teacher training as well.

Several countries (Czech Republic, France, Italy, Portugal, Slovenia and the United Kingdom) have statutory recommendations for schools and other organizations in relation to the provision of extra-curricular arts activities. In Italy, CPD activities for arts teachers focus on drama and music in particular.

Italian art has influenced several major movements throughout the centuries and has produced several great artists, including painters, architects and sculptors that is why Italy has an important place in the international art scene. Addressing the large public with major art galleries, museums and exhibitions. Italy is home to the greatest number of UNESCO World Heritage Sites (58), the largest number of any country in the world that can be visited during the Museum Night, which has taken place in Italy since 2005. Italy has 4 cities nominated as European Capitals of Culture: Florence, Bologna, Genoa, Matera.

The Italian Institutes of Culture (about 100 in Italy) are committed not only to preserve and store historical documents, but to preserve and disseminate the contents of those documents, in other words to preserve and disseminate Italian cultural memory. These are also deeply involved in understanding and developing innovative models of learning, especially those solutions which update the teaching of history (intended in any sense: the social, economic and political points of view).

According to statista.com the promotion of cultural development is part of the 12 fundamental principles in the Constitution of the Italian Republic. In 1985, to support the arts and cultural industry, the Italian government established a fund for the performing arts called “Fondo Unico per lo Spettacolo” (FUS). The cultural and creative production system is divided into seven sectors: architecture and design, communication, musical and audiovisual, books, printed media & publishing, video games and software, museums and similar cultural institutions, and performing arts.

Santovito (2017) mentions the cultural and creative industries are ranked third in Italy from an occupational point of view after the construction sector and catering and hotel industry. Thanks to the important intellectual contribution, the creative industry is characterized by a high concentration of human capital.

Over the last few years, some projects have been promoted in various regions of Italy to support the growing creative industries. Some examples are: Incredibol! Rome Provincia Creativa, Agenzia Campania Innovazione.

According to the European Agenda for culture - one of the key elements of success seems to be the capacity to identify some representatives of the community who may build a bridge between the community and the institution, as well as the main audience of the institution, working as mediators and ambassadors.

A recent study which involved datamining the Italian Culture and Wellbeing Project found that cultural access was the second most important determinant of psychological subjective wellbeing after multiple morbidities, outperforming factors such as occupation, age, income and education (Grossi et al, 2010 & 2012).