Financing the culture in Italy

The paper deals with financing the culture in Italy. The public expenses for the culture are shared as expenses of the government, of the regions, of the provinces and of the municipalities. The relationships of the cultural organisations with the public sector are very strong because they belong to the public sector, or they broadly depend on public funds.A specific attention is devoted to other forms of financing, about the role of the entrance fees and the entrances of the game “Lotto”, which subsidy the cultural goods and the Interministerial Committee for the Economic Planning (CIPE) allocations to the depressed areas. We will also be faced up to the examination of other sources of private financing as the sponsorships, the entrances of collateral services about museum visits (coffee and bookstore) and the supply of banking foundations. The fiscal incentives refer directly to the cultural institution or to the external financing of the nonprofit institutions by donations or sponsorships. Finally, the cultural institutions will have always to operate more and more by a strategic vision of financial and managerial field, on the basis of high qualitative standards. The activities and cultural projects will have to be able to attract additional sources of income in addition to the public one; the search of private financial resources is developed in a situation of increasing competition among the institutions, while tools of innovative finance have to be used to satisfy the increasing demand of culture. It is difficult nevertheless to define the possible best method of public–private financing, if you take consideration of the distinctive features of the different institutions and interests of the operators who are involved: artists, cultural institutions, public bureaucracy, besides the economic effects which follow alternative choices. The recent evolution of the institutional, financial and managerial models of the culture in Italy plans a larger integration between public and private sectors for a great involvement of individuals, enterprises and foundations about the financing of the cultural services offer.