Natural and cultural resources
Emilia-Romagna is a land rich in museums. A recent survey found that there were 469 museums scattered through 175 local authorities and organized thematically in a distribution network so as to form an extensive and complex museum system. Emilia-Romagna does in fact possess a remarkable cultural heritage which the centuries have enriched by the presence of universities, civic and academic institutions. Archaeological and artistic collections predominate, accounting for about 40% of the entire heritage but of no less importance are the ethnographic, anthropological and natural history museums which spearhead a policy of historical and environmental conservation. Mention should be made of the visitor centres in nature reserves and marshland parks where open air museums illustrate activities connected to the water. There is no shortage of novelty museums such as that devoted to cigarette cards in the province of Modena or specialist museums such as the International Ceramics Museum in Faenza.
Through the intermediary of IBACN, the institute for artistic, cultural and natural heritage, the Region aims to show off individual museums to their best advantage by placing them in a museum network system so as to optimize the use of financial resources and create conditions which meet the demands of the public and come up to international conservation standards. The Institute also carries out preliminary research, deals with cataloguing and reordering collections but also researches conservation methodology and undertakes museum staff training as well as public awareness campaigns, focusing attention on new multimedia technologies for a more efficient use of what the museums have to offer.
Another important aspect of regional policy is museum integration and inclusion on the worldwide web in order to optimize resources, initiate joint ventures and facilitate access to our museums both by tourists and by the locals. An example of this is "Bologna dei Musei", the first in a long line of projects created for Bologna: European City of Culture in the year 2000. This is the first time that an Italian city has put all its museums on the web (in this case 36 public and private museums) in order to launch joint exhibitions and projects, publishing ventures, lecture series, concerts and guided visits. At the same time access to the museums has been facilitated with a variety of entrance charges including: annual subscription, extended validity tickets, and, in some cases, tickets including the bus ride. The fifty-four museums in the province of Modena have signed an agreement on coordinating promotional, communications and publishing ventures. The project got underway in 1997 and resulted in the creation of a mark which now graces a publication on the museum system, several brochures and an Internet site. Future plans include a common calendar of events and series of training programmes. Ferrara Arte is also of particular interest. A public company set up jointly by the City and regional authorities, its brief is to work in conjunction with the Municipal Galleries of Modern and Contemporary Art on organizing exhibitions likely to promote the city’s heritage and long history of dedication to the arts, while responding to the challenge of combining the undisputed quality of its exhibitions with the quantity of visitors they attract. Indeed, since 1991, the year of the inaugural exhibition, which was devoted to Giovanni Boldini and shown in Paris, the shows organized by Ferrara Art have continued unabated, covering various areas of research: from the European figurative tradition from the late eighteenth to the twentieth century, to archaeology, twentieth century Italian art and the history - both ancient and modern - of Ferrarese art. The database of Emilia-Romagna museums, with full information, can be consulted on the IBC website at http://www.ibc.regione.emilia-romagna.it/
IBACN
Servizio Musei e Beni Culturali
(Museum and Cultural Heritage Service)
Via Galliera, 21- 40124 Bologna
Tel. 051.5277414 -
Fax 051.232599
musei@regione.emilia-romagna.it
