On February 23rd, during Tourisma, a three days International Exhibition of Archaeology and Cultural Tourism, the city of Florence hosted the event “Stati generali della gestione del patrimonio culturale dal basso”, the First national meeting gathering Italian actors involved in the bottom-up management of cultural heritage. The meeting was promoted by Professor Giuliano Volpe, Full Professor of Archaeology at the University of Foggia, former Rector of the same University and former President of the “Consiglio Superiore per i Beni Culturali e Paesaggistici” (Council for landscape and cultural heritage) of the Italian Ministry of Culture. Over the last years, Professor Volpe has studied Italian practices of cultural heritage bottom-up governance that he has investigated in two of his last publications: “Un patrimonio italiano. Beni culturali, paesaggio e cittadini” (2016) and “Il bene nostro. Un impegno per il patrimonio culturale” (2018). Also, Federculture – the Italian Federation of Public Services for Culture, Tourism, Sport and Leisure contributed to the promotion of the meeting, attended by members of dozens of associations, cooperatives and foundations involved in the management of cultural heritage, from Northern, Central and Southern Italy, and also public officers.
In the first part of the meeting, some representatives contributed with their expertise/experience to the debate on cultural heritage bottom-up governance in Italy: Professor Giuliano Volpe – promoter of the meeting; Antonio Loffredo – Clergyman and founder of “La Paranza”, a cooperative of young people managing Early Christian Catacombs in a disadvantaged neighbourhood in Naples; Professor Stefano Consiglio – University of Naples Federico II, who investigates the phenomenon in Southern Italy; Professor Andrea Carandini – Archaeologist and President of FAI-Fondo Ambiente Italiano, the National Trust for Italy, a non-profit foundation involved in the conservation and enhancement of cultural and natural heritage thanks to a network of volunteers, individuals, companies and institutions; Giuseppe Sassatelli – President of Fondazione RavennAntica, in charge of the management of some of Ravenna’s archaeological, architectural and historical-artistic sites; Valerio Pennasso – Director of the National Office for cultural heritage of the Italian Bishops’ Conference; and Claudio Bocci – President of Federculture. In the second part, participants could listen to dozens of experiences, projects and practices of Italian actors involved in the governance of cultural heritage including archaeological sites, intangible heritage, churches, historical buildings, maritime heritage etc, having different legal status, organization, mission and territorial scope.
The event was also the occasion for the launch of a national network with regional representatives and the approval of a formal document through which all participants asked the Italian Parliament to ratify the Faro Convention and claim for a better acknowledgment of the actors involved in the bottom-up management of cultural heritage, a higher commitment of public bodies to facilitate the participatory governance of cultural heritage, as well as a stronger cooperation between the Ministry of Culture and the University and School sectors. Here below a summary in English of the original document approved at the end of the meeting:
The participants are convinced that such a diffused heritage cannot be valorised without the commitment of citizens, of Third sector associations, of foundations, of society and professionals of cultural goods. It needs a public and coordinated action to orientate, value and monitor the quality of the projects submitted and of the applicants.
They underline the quality and efficiency of actions undertaken by people on the national territory, in particular regarding the reuse of cultural and landscape goods (often striken by degradation and abandonment), the restitution to local communities, social inclusion, the creation of qualified job, healthy, clean and sustainable economy, social promotion, city security and liveability, as well as living conditions improvement.
Besides, they stress how, from a very preliminary study emerged an important phenomenon of citizen engagement (concerning hundreds or thousands people with different types of employment contracts) and created uppermost and measurable economic benefits excluding knock-on effects, which were estimated to generate a dozen million euros.
They also hope that all public administrations, whether city centres or in remote areas, will from now on work to valorise and support the country energies, passions and skills which work for the ‘promotion of knowledge and research development’ and for ‘landscape as well as historical and artistic heritage conservation’ (art.9 of the Italian Constitution). They hope to increase the collaboration between the MiBAC (Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities) and Schools/Universities.
At last, they call for a real engagement and application of the Subsidiarity principle as supported by the art.118 of the Italian Constitution which encourages “citizens’ autonomous initiatives, whether as individuals or groups, to carry out actions of general interest”, notably regarding cultural heritage. They invite the Parliament to shortly ratify The Faro Convention on cultural heritage societal value. Eventually, they urge the creation of a national network with regional referents so as to have a stronger impact and call political organisations, local and regional national entities, Schools, National Associations and International organisations such as UNESCO and ICOM to engage alongside.