Art Bonus 2025: City of Spoleto and AMA Calabria win, more than 106 thousand total votes

The City of Spoleto and theArtistic Manifestations Association (AMA) Calabria are the winners of the ninth edition of the Art Bonus Competition, promoted by the Ministry of Culture with ALES in collaboration with Promo PA Foundation. The competition, which for years has been rewarding the best cultural projects financed thanks to the tax incentive of the same name, saw two very different realities excel, but united by an extraordinary ability to mobilize their respective communities.

In the category Cultural Assets and Places, the Umbrian municipality prevailed with 7,174 votes collected for the restoration of the Historic Curtain of the Teatro Nuovo Gian Carlo Menotti. In the “Live Entertainment” section, the winning project was Derby, a play promoted by AMA Calabria, which totaled 6,731 votes. Two symbolically significant victories that testify to the effectiveness of the Art Bonus tool and the importance of civic involvement in cultural policies. The Art Bonus 2025 Competition selected as many as 374 projects on the official platform of the Ministry of Culture(www.artbonus.gov.it). Of these, 30 were admitted to the second phase of the competition: a social final held on April 15, a date chosen not by chance, as it coincides with the birth of Gaius Cilnius Maecenas, an emblematic figure of support for the arts in antiquity.

Voting took place in two phases. The first was held online, from March 10 to April 14, on the official Art Bonus website. The second, the so-called Click Day, took place on Art Bonus’s official social channels, Facebook and Instagram, and featured the 30 projects that received the most votes in the previous phase, divided into two categories of 15 finalists each. The numbers tell a story of success: 35,100 likes in a single day, 71,089 online votes, for a total of 106,189 total preferences expressed. The winning project for the cultural heritage section concerns a work of great historical and artistic significance. The restored curtain of the Teatro Nuovo Gian Carlo Menotti is a 19th-century masterpiece created in 1861 by painter Francesco Coghetti. The work depicts the famous scene of Hannibal’s defeat under the walls of the city of Spoleto. Thanks to the restoration work, the curtain is now once again an integral part of Spoleto’s cultural heritage. The result achieved represents a collective victory, the result of public-private synergy, made possible by the generosity of Art Bonus patrons and the strong cohesion of the local community. Indeed, associations, civic realities and citizens supported the initiative with a wide participation in the vote.

On the live performance front, too, the winning project conveys a highly relevant message. Derby is a theater production by AMA Calabria that addresses crucial issues such as the circular economy and environmental sustainability. Aimed especially at the younger generation, the show invites young people to rediscover the value of respect for the planet through the immediate and engaging language of theater. The success achieved testifies to the public’s attention to environmental issues, but also to the solidity of the Association, which for nearly fifty years has been a point of reference in cultural promotion, both regionally and nationally. The wide consensus received is the result of the credibility built up over the years and AMA Calabria’s ability to offer concrete opportunities to young artists and those working in the performing arts. The Art Bonus Competition does not provide cash prizes, but awards a symbolic recognition to the top three finishers in each category. A new feature introduced for the 2025 edition is the Special Prize, which will be awarded during the public awards ceremony to the institution that has distinguished itself in fundraising not only for the economic result achieved, but also for the good practices adopted in the process. The goal is to enhance the effectiveness with which the Art Bonus tax measure is used, fostering an increasingly mature and transparent culture of donation.

In the Goods and Places of Culture ranking, behind the City of Spoleto were the City of Turin with the project Feeding on Culture 2023 (5,455 votes), and the City of Naples with the restoration of the organ of the Church of San Gregorio Armeno (4,401 votes). This is followed by major projects promoted by institutions such as the Carrara Academy, the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, the Province of Livorno, and the National Archaeological Museum in Arezzo.

The Live Entertainment category also saw strong participation. After AMA Calabria, the Fondazione Teatro di San Carlo of Naples took the podium with its initiative dedicated to bringing young people closer to opera (3,414 votes), and the Orchestra Regionale Filarmonia Veneta with its music project 2023 (3,249 votes). Also appearing in the rankings are entities such as the Teatro Regio di Parma, the Fondazione per la Cultura di Torino with the Mito SettembreMusica festival, the Camerata Musicale Sulmonese, and the Fondazione Teatri di Piacenza, which will star in 2023 with a concert conducted by Maestro Riccardo Muti. Launched in 2016, the competition is part of the broader strategy to promote the Art Bonus tool. This is a tax measure introduced in 2014 to incentivize private donations to culture. Through a tax credit equal to 65 percent of the amount donated, the Art Bonus allows citizens and businesses to support interventions to protect and enhance public cultural heritage. Data updated as of April 15, 2025 confirm the measure’s wide success: 1 billion 76 million euros in total disbursements, more than 47,000 patrons involved, 2,800 beneficiary entities, and about 7,500 published interventions. Numbers that testify to the effectiveness of a cultural policy that focuses on active citizen participation and public-private cooperation.

“The participation and involvement of so many citizens in the Art Bonus competition,” said Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli, “is proof of the positive value that this norm has not only for the support of cultural goods and activities, but also for the knowledge of our nation’s cultural heritage. The two winning projects demonstrate the importance of integration with the territory and the longevity of institutions capable of evolving over time through innovation in cultural offerings. Art bonus is a form of widespread patronage that MiC is enthusiastic about. Thanks to this tool, a broad identity awareness has emerged and a willingness to pass it on to future generations. I hope that the use of this institution will grow more and more.”

Art Bonus 2025: City of Spoleto and AMA Calabria win, more than 106 thousand total votes

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