Anci president and mayor of Bari Antonio Decaro and Culture delegate and mayor of Mantua Mattia Palazzi have sent MiBACT Minister Dario Franceschini a letter appealing to initiate a shared plan between theNational Association of Italian Municipalities and the Ministry of Culture with measures necessary for the sector’s recovery. Starting with a conivocal timetable, they call for reopening museums and civic institutions as soon as possible.
“A series of actions divided between urgent and medium-term,” they write in the document. “The cultural institutions of the municipalities need to plan their activities well in advance (especially the temporary exhibitions of the Museums, the most relevant stagings of the opera and drama theaters, etc.). It is therefore imperative that after the most critical moment of the pandemic has passed, the plan for the reopenings of these institutions should be indicated well in advance.”
The most urgent proposals focus on several points: reopen civic museums soon, strengthen the fund for the relief of non-state museums, provide for the presence of representatives of municipalities in all ministerial tables on the cultural sector, complete the reform of live entertainment as soon as possible, expand the scope of the Art Bonus by extending it to support activities, events and projects of cultural production and dissemination, the establishment of a special fund of at least 100 million euros per year to be allocated to municipalities on a three-year basis for cultural revival, strengthen and share the Culture-Tourism part of the Recovery Fund, increase to 10 million euros per year the financial allocations for the Fund for the implementation of the National Plan for the Promotion of Reading, and define a National Plan for the strengthening of the system of public reading libraries.
Regarding the reopening of civic museums, it is requested that "consistent with the measures to contain the pandemic, we can as soon as possible begin to reopen the Civic Museums, places par excellence of the noblest cultural memory of our communities, which have already demonstrated in the months following the first pandemic wave that they can safely handle possibly contingent flows of visitors. Reopenings may also take place in a phased manner, giving priority to facilities that have certain requirements, such as:
- number of visitors below a certain threshold;
- space available per visitor above a certain threshold;
- preparation of a communication plan indicating the procedures followed to ensure the health safety of workers and visitors.
It would also be important to provide interventions that incentivize attendance at cultural venues (such as tax breaks for the purchase of loyalty cards and season tickets)."
Let's reopen civic museums soon: Anci's appeal to Franceschini |
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