Seven companies which set excellent examples by concretely demonstrating this were awarded on Saturday, November 17, in Venice. The Tuscan association Pitti Immagine earned first place with its “La cultura della moda” (Culture of Fashion) program, succeeding in demonstrating fashion’s ability to relate with other disciplines and creative means of expression. The first place winner was assigned a free one-year membership (worth 60 million ITL) to “Intrapresae Collezione Guggenheim”, a project which has established a continuous relationship between certain selected companies and the Guggenheim Foundation since 1992, in order to give life to a series of cultural exchanges. The most innovative work? “Il manifesto delle esigenze abitative dei bambini” (Manifesto for children’s living needs) by Andria Cooperativa which was awarded the “Premio Peggy Guggenheim”. The association from Correggio (Reggio Emilia) gathered children’s dreams and needs, proposing concrete solutions and those which may be put into practice (the manifesto led to an overall plan to create 26 homes) in the name of an improved quality of life.
Culture is also an excellent way for promoting oneself. Cooperativa Ceramiche d’Imola from Bologna confirms this, winner of the “Premio MondoItalia”. The best corporate museum, rather, was “Museo dello Scarpone e della calzatura sportiva” (Museum of ski boot and sport shoe) promoted by Distretto della Calzatura Sportiva in Montebelluna (Treviso). The most effective communication was shown by Omnitel Vodafone and its multimedia laboratory “Omnitel Media Lab” set up inside the “Media Connection” exhibition which, at the Triennale di Milano, focused on video art over the last forty years. Culture for social integration. This was the basis for the “Ricami di pietra” (Embroidery made of stone) project by Calìa Salotti in Matera which created a lab for the patients of the town’s mental health department. Finally, a very old company, Amarelli Fabbrica di Liquirizia in Rossano Scalo (Cosenza), made its debut with the Museo della Liquirizia (Liquorice Museum), awarded the “Premio Il Sole 24 Ore”.
The marriage between the entrepreneurial world and culture therefore continues without hitches. With the participation of 81 companies – 22 percent more than last year – and a definite show of service companies divided equally between business-to-business and business-to-consumer together with industrial and information technology companies, business investment in culture is no longer sector-related but widespread and variegated. Although the north had an advantage over the rest of the peninsula (over a third of total participation came from Lombardy and 70 percent of the competitors came from northern regions), the middle and southern regions succeeded, in any case, in maintaining high quality and receiving two of the seven awards.
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