Bologna, May 28, 2024 – Fondazione Carisbo and Opera Laboratori have signed a four-year partnership agreement for collaboration in the field of art and culture. This partnership will focus on the management and enhancement of four locations within the Genus Bononiae museum circuit: Palazzo Fava – Palazzo delle Esposizioni; San Colombano – Tagliavini Collection; the monumental complex of Santa Maria della Vita; and San Giorgio in Poggiale – Library of Art and History.
Following a procedure initiated by the Foundation to select specialized operators, Opera Laboratori’s proposal was chosen as the winning bid. The collaboration with Opera Laboratori will involve high-quality initiatives at the four Genus Bononiae museum sites dedicated to enhancing, understanding, and disseminating the artistic and cultural heritage to a broad audience, with a focus on the Foundation’s Collections. This partnership aims to create new opportunities to increase the attractiveness of the metropolitan area of Bologna. The agreement also includes integrated and synergistic management of the complementary services at the museum sites, with targeted investments to enhance the specific vocation of each location, which will serve as centers for cultural programming and also as hubs for study, research, cataloging, and preservation of centuries of art, history, literature, and culture of Bologna.
Fondazione Carisbo, together with Opera Laboratori, is preparing to design a new model for the management and enhancement of cultural and territorial heritage, as a repository of collective memory and legacy to be experienced and transmitted, both in its content and production. The focus will be on sustainability and measuring impact, aiming to offer a museum experience that makes visitors increasingly aware participants. The enhancement of the Genus Bononiae project stems from the desire to provide a privileged perspective on the territory through the museum circuit, a tool capable of connecting tradition and contemporary elements, involving all public and private stakeholders.
Patrizia Pasini, President of Fondazione Carisbo, and Renzo Servadei, Sole Director of Genus Bononiae, comment: “We are promoting a new vision of the museum as a genuine center of production, rather than merely a place to visit, with the goal of enhancing a project initiated by the Foundation many years ago and which now needs to renew itself as a strategic resource for the territory. This is in a context of access and enjoyment of cultural heritage that has radically changed and is rapidly evolving. The multi-year duration of the agreement with Opera Laboratori demonstrates our commitment to building a professional partnership that goes beyond the classic client/manager model, aiming to create an organizational and managerial direction that pursues social, economic, and environmental sustainability to promote the most fruitful impacts of the daily cultural and artistic efforts of the Foundation through Genus Bononiae. As planned, the skills and expertise of the museum staff have been preserved, acknowledging their role in producing high-quality cultural content that serves social purposes.”
Giuseppe Costa, President of Opera Laboratori, states: “The cultural project of Genus Bononiae represents a challenge that we have embraced from the start, and through our fruitful collaboration with Fondazione Carisbo, we will bring our thirty years of experience to a historic city like Bologna. We aim to create a path of social enrichment that fosters participatory culture through forward-looking cultural offerings. The richness of Genus Bononiae, the quadrilateral of Bolognese culture, imposes an even greater commitment on us to restore these museums and historic buildings to public enjoyment with an interpretative approach that allows for a continuous dialogue between past and present. It is a challenge we pursue through our active workshops, where creating good and beautiful things is business. As always, we will operate with respect for the collections and monuments as testaments to culture and beauty, and we will do so through the people, the true added value of our company.”
Fondazione Carisbo
Founded in 1991, Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio in Bologna is an association-based banking foundation that pursues social utility goals by promoting economic, social, and cultural development in its reference territory while respecting its original traditions. Over more than 30 years, it has allocated over 750 million euros to the Metropolitan City of Bologna and the Emilia-Romagna Region, enabling more than 14,000 projects in art, research, education, welfare, environment, and innovation on a national and international level, aligning programs and initiatives with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. Through the Genus Bononiae project, for which it established and directs the instrumental company Genus Bononiae – Musei della Città Srl, Fondazione Carisbo is committed to facilitating access to culture in its various forms, supporting cultural participation as a means of social integration and community and belonging building.
www.fondazionecarisbo.it
Opera Laboratori
Founded in 1991, Opera Laboratori has been a leading company in Italy in cultural production and museum management for over 30 years. It is present in over 60 cultural institutions in Italy, including: the Uffizi Galleries, the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, the Royal Palace of Caserta, the Siena Cathedral Complex, Villa Giulia in Rome, the Pinacoteca di Brera, the Civic Museums of Assisi, the Accademia Galleries in Venice, the Jewish Synagogues and Museums in Florence and Siena, as well as the Ghetto, the Jewish Museum, and the five synagogues in Venice. Through additional services, Opera Laboratori manages bookshops, reservations, ticketing, reception, exhibition design, and organization at major museums in Italy, including MAXXI, the National Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome, and MAMbo, the Modern Art Museum of Bologna, for which it has managed the bookshop since last October. Opera Laboratori now employs over a thousand staff and boasts years of experience in cultural design, allowing it to carry out thousands of installations in the most important museums and sites in Italy and abroad. Opera also has its own publishing house, Sillabe, specializing in the creation, design, and production of art books and merchandising for major Italian museums. Opera manages eight “Dear Guests” visitor centers across Italy—innovative multimedia reception centers and points of sale and reservation for museum sites, also accessible nationwide through the online portal dearguests.com, with physical locations near Piazza del Campo in Siena and Ponte Vecchio in Florence.
www.operalaboratori.com
FONDAZIONE CASSA DI RISPARMIO IN BOLOGNA
Presidency and Direction Secretariat – Communication
Francesco Tosi 349 3519954 | francesco.tosi@fondazionecarisbo.it
OPERA LABORATORI
Press Office
Andrea Acampa 348 1755654 | a.acampa@operalaboratori.com
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