2004 - Firenze University Press
This book consists of a series of essays on the subject of the economic valorisation of the cultural, artistic and environmental heritage (CAEH) of the art city of Florence using a business economics approach which avails of three basic groups: the art city, cultural districts and museums. It is the result of the experience built up by a group of Florentine researchers who found an opportunity for encounter and discussion in their participation in the Postgraduate Course in Economics and the Management of Museum Assets, Faculty of Economics of Florence. The subject of economic valorisation has now become a current topic and the idea that culture can be considered a factor of economic production able to generate wealth appears to have been generally accepted in Italy too. It was only a few years ago that safeguarding and conserving the heritage were the only aspects considered while those people involved in management were almost exclusively figures with a training in the arts or humanities, whether art historians, archaeologists, men of letters or others. Today, while on the one hand these same people ponder about the methods for managing a heritage that is increasingly difficult to conserve and maintain; on the other, company managers have begun to involve themselves in running cultural and artistic institutions, offering their skills. The book is divided into two parts. The first contains the main contribution regarding the issue of the economic valorisation of the art city's heritage which is first explored following a business logic, and then from the perspective of cultural districtualisation process. The sectors studied are the art restoration and the museum system of Florence, together with the benchmarking between Florence and Seville hotel industries. This first part concludes with an analytical review of the most significant programmes promoted by the European Community on this issue. The contributions presented in the second part, instead, are centred on preeminent Florence museums, which are approached from a strategic and managerial perspective, specifically the issues of controlling economic-financial management are addressed, and the museum as a knowledge creating system. This book will appeal to scholars and researchers focusing on the cultural economics and managerial economics of art and to practitioners in the cultural sector and policy makers. [Publisher's Text]
xvi, 241 p.
