Analysis

The Culture Observatories, a project never completed

The latest edition of the Piedmont Cultural Observatory report draws attention to the urgent need to set up a national coordination for data collection and the study of phenomena in the sector

by Roberta Capozucca

11 November 2024

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Key points

What emerges from the Report of the Cultural Observatory of Piedmont?
The birth and evolution of Cultural Observatories in Italy
The role of the regions and the reform of Title V An unavoidable necessity

6' min read

In recent weeks, the new edition of 'La cultura in Piemonte. Annual Report 2023-2023', a detailed analysis of the regional cultural system. Realised by the Osservatorio Culturale del Piemonte (OCP), this annual report offers a de facto business intelligence service, providing cultural institutions, operators and regional policy-makers with an in-depth reading of data on cultural consumption and production in Piedmont with the aim of supporting informed decisions and effective strategies for the sector. The publication of the Report represents an important opportunity for this editorial office to reflect on the strategic value of the Culture Observatories, real information systems, now more necessary than ever to homogenise data collection and orient cultural policies on the basis of factual evidence. Indeed, although there have been several attempts in the past that have led to the establishment of regional and thematic Cultural Observatories, the goal of an integrated national coordination still seems distant: an absence that not only prevents a coordinated reading of cultural phenomena, but also limits the possibility of interpreting and enhancing the existing information, which continues to be fragmentary and lacking.

What emerges from the Report of the Cultural Observatory of Piedmont?

The OCP Report provides a clear and in-depth overview of the data that a Cultural Observatory is able to collect and the potential impact that a structured analysis could have on sector policies. As it does every year, the OCP structures its analysis around three key areas: the value of cultural consumption, production, and public investments in culture in Piedmont. On the cultural fruition front, the results of 2023 are particularly significant and mark a decisive return to pre-pandemic levels: the 211 museums monitored recorded a historical record of 7 million admissions, marking the best performance ever. Museum audiences grew by 22% compared to the previous year and by 12% compared to 2019, with an overall increase of 718,000 visitors. Driving this success were above all the assets of Turin's Metropolitan Museum System (SMM), with half of the visits concentrated on four attractions: the Egyptian Museum, the National Cinema Museum, the MRT-Musei Reali di Torino and La Venaria Reale. In particular, the Egyptian Museum exceeded the one million admissions mark for the first time, with an increase of 17% compared to 2022 and 24% compared to 2019, ranking 4th among Italian museums and 63rd worldwide.

The theatre sector also recorded a significant increase, with +32% in admissions and +38% in revenues. It is also worth noting that at regional level, theatre accounts for no less than 70% of the total cultural offer, attracting 1.75 million spectators and generating revenue of €33.78 million. On the contrary, the cinema sector continues to struggle to recover its pre-pandemic levels: with 5.1 million tickets sold, admissions remain 25.5% lower and takings are down 18%. This trend had already been highlighted by OCP in past years, to the extent that the Piedmont Region had included in the Triennial Culture Programme 2022-2024 specific measures to support cinemas, such as the initiatives "Cinema al Cinema", "Ritorno al Cinema" and "Glocal Film Days"; measures that, as the data show, proved insufficient to reverse the trend.

LA PARTECIPAZIONE

On the public investment front, there was a 6.4 per cent increase in appropriations in 2023 for a total of 269 million euro. In this section, against the positive data on cultural fruition, the OCP report highlights the importance of the current subscription policies designed to encourage resident participation. In 2024, the Abbonamento Musei generated almost 906 thousand admissions, while the 79 thousand Torino+Piemonte Card contributed an additional 340 thousand visits. Also worth mentioning is the Cultural Passport, designed for families and children, which in 2023 gave 15 thousand people access to the 42 museums in the Family and Kids Friendly network.

IL PESO DELLE ATTIVITÀ CULTURALI

The Birth and Evolution of Cultural Observatories in Italy

The concept of observatories has ancient roots, but it was only in the 1980s that these structures began to spread in the cultural sphere. The profound transformations in cultural consumption in those years, combined with the new powers of autonomy assigned to the regions in sectors previously reserved for the central state, such as culture, began to force public administrations to equip themselves with innovative tools to meet the challenges that were emerging.

At a national level, the first intervention on the subject dates back to 1985, the year in which Law no. 163 "Nuova disciplina degli interventi dello Stato a favore dello spettacolo" was passed, establishing the Observatory of the Performing Arts, which was part of the then Ministry of Tourism and Performing Arts. It was then the Regions that followed up on this initiative, starting with Lombardy, which in 1989, thanks to the collaboration with the IReR (Regional Research Institute), set up the first Cultural Observatory of the Region. This was followed, almost a decade later, by the establishment of the Cultural Observatory of Piedmont (OCP) in 1998, through a memorandum of understanding involving the Piedmont Region, IRES (Istituto di Ricerche Economico-Sociali), the Fitzcarraldo Foundation, the City of Turin, Compagnia di San Paolo, the Cassa di Risparmio di Torino Foundation and AGIS. Finally, in 1999, the Emilia-Romagna Region Performing Arts Observatory was created, which developed from the permanent Observatory on the Economy of Culture activated in 1996, managed by the Region in collaboration with ATER (Associazione Teatrale Emilia-Romagna).

The role of the regions and the reform of Title V

In the early 2000s, the growth of regional cultural observatories experienced a significant acceleration following the redefinition of competences between State, Regions and Local Authorities introduced by the reform of Title V of the Constitution in 2001. With this reform, the management of entertainment was attributed to concurrent legislation between the State and the Regions, giving the sector a new autonomy and providing a decisive impetus for the creation of a regional information system centred on the Observatory model. Thanks to this new autonomy, in 2004, the Conference of the Regions put forward a proposal for a law (Proposal for a Law on the Fundamental Principles for the Performing Arts in accordance with Article 117, paragraph 3, of the Constitution), attributing to the Regions and Autonomous Provinces the task of conducting observation and monitoring activities, including the creation of databases dedicated to the production and promotion of the performing arts at the regional level. In 2006, the Coordination of the Regions, in collaboration with Anci - National Association of Italian Municipalities and Upi - Union of the Provinces of Italy, presented the interregional project 'ORMA - Regional Observatories and Collaboration with the National Observatory in the field of performing arts policies', to which 19 subjects between the Regions and Autonomous Provinces adhered, and which committed to financing the initiative together with the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities. This project, carried out with ISTAT, aimed to promote the creation of new regional observatories and to strengthen the existing ones, in collaboration with a National Observatory attached to the Ministry. This was, to all intents and purposes, the most concrete and feasible attempt to create a centralised coordination for the management of these privileged observation centres, but it never came to fruition. It was not until 2022 that the national legislature took up the issue of the Observatories again with the enactment of the law "Delegation to the Government and Other Provisions Concerning the Performing Arts". This law, for which the implementing decrees were never published, provided, among other measures, for the creation of a national network system of performing arts observatories.

An unavoidable necessity

Currently, 14 regional cultural observatories operate in the country. In addition to those already mentioned in Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna and Piedmont, the Observatories of Marche, Trentino Alto Adige, Abruzzo and Friuli Venezia Giulia have been added, along with those of Apulia, Sardinia, Campania and Sicily, and, more recently, Basilicata, Veneto and Tuscany. In fact, the lack of a multisectoral culture observatory of central emanation, the need for which emerged strongly during the pandemic crisis of 2020, when the state found itself having to design support and relief measures for workers and companies in the sector that it did not in fact know.

But what is the real tragedy of not having a National Observatory dedicated to culture? First of all, the difficulty of bringing together the various statistical sources pertaining to the cultural and creative sector, which are not always aligned with respect to timing, purpose and methodological aspects. And although the work of some private research centres, such as Fondazione Symbola and the associations Federculture and Civita, compensates somewhat for this lack by producing research and periodic monitoring activities, they do not dialogue either with the Ministry or with each other because they have different roles and functions. Without prejudice to the fundamental role that ISTAT plays in this regard, this situation, in short, constitutes an obstacle to a unified and strategic management of information, reducing the possibilities of enhancing the role of culture as a lever to tackle global challenges. However, it is not necessary to start from scratch, it would be sufficient to improve cooperation between regional and national actors, in synergy with policy makers, to facilitate the implementation of more organised and hopefully more effective cultural policies.

We would like to thank Antonio Taormina, Professor of Planning and Management of Performing Arts at the University of Bologna, for his collaboration and the information provided.