How is culture fared in the administrations of 5 Stars and the Northern League? Let's take a look

The March 4 elections handed us a result more uncertain than ever and, a week after the polls closed, it is still hard to understand what the future balance in Parliament might be: however, among the scenarios still considered most probable is that of an understanding between the 5 Star Movement and the Northern League. Probable, but difficult: first, because the respective leaders have already ruled out the possibility of an alliance. And then, because the programs of the Movement and the League diverge on many key points, and even if the hypothesis of a government with Pentasternist and Legaist traction were to succeed, the idea that such an operation could last for a long time would seem to have more to do with political fantasy than with reality. Much more likely is the hypothesis that the future government would include elements of one or the other party. However, since this is an unprecedented situation (it has never happened that, at the national level, the Grillians have exceeded 30 percent of preferences, nor has the Northern League ever before been the leading party within the center-right coalition), it is worth conducting an in-depth study, limited to our sphere, to see how culture fares in the administrations of the 5 Star Movement and the Northern League. Certainly: the area of culture is where the programs of the League and 5 Stars take different paths, on many opposite points. And it is also true that the logics behind the administration of a municipality or region are radically different from those that come into play at the national level. But analyzing what Pentastellates and Leghists have done for culture within their administrations can be useful to draw elements of evaluation.

The 5 Star Movement administers four provincial capitals, three of which are above one hundred thousand inhabitants (only these will be considered in the article): Rome, Turin, Livorno, and Ragusa. In Rome, Councillor Luca Bergamo, formerly close to the ulivist ranks but considered independent, is widely indicated as one of the best councillors of the Raggi junta and has initiated a policy aimed at the democratization of culture, animated by the idea that culture does not equate to profit and making no secret of the fact that the city’s cultural policies should concern citizens before tourists: go in this direction some measures such as the introduction of a card for residents that, for only 5 euros, allows them to visit all the Roman civic museums, the attempt to “revisit” Zètema (Roma Capitale’s investee in the culture sector) as a service company ancillary to the City Council and not as a center of conception and design, the interest in alternative institutions (such as MAAM or Teatro Valle), the project (still on paper) for free access for all to the Imperial Forums, the reorganization of the city’s exhibition spaces with the creation of a Contemporary Pole capable of bringing together the Macro in its two locations, the Palazzo delle Esposizioni and the Pelanda, the reorganization of the city’s theater system, with a single association to take care of all municipal theaters. Critics point the finger at the propensity of the Cultural Growth Department (that’s officially the name) to want to focus on niche exhibitions and events and not invest in events with greater tourist appeal, at an attention deemed excessive toward occupied cultural spaces, and at certain episodes such as the closing of the Teatro dell’Orologio, having entrusted Giorgio De Finis with the de facto direction of the Macro without the use of a call for bids (and yet, on the contrary, several movie stars signed a petition against Bergamo for having put Piazza San Cosimato, already occupied by the Piccolo Cinema America association, which had turned it into an open-air cinema, under a call for bids).

Rome, the Trevi Fountain. Ph. Credit Finestre Sull’Arte

Far worse, bordering on disastrous, however, seems to be the situation in Turin, where the separation between the Italian Publishers’ Association and the Book Fair has caused an uproar, resulting in the creation of the Milan-based Tempo di Libri fair, and after the Fair, however, was already suffering from several problems, both financial in nature and in terms of visitor numbers (the event had been hemorrhaging visitors since 2015, although numerous quarrels arose around the method of calculating the official figures, since pre-2016 figures add up ticket sales and other entrance fees, such as passes and subscriptions. However, 2017 showed an increase over 2016). That’s not all: in fact, Turin lost the Jazz Fringe Festival (which moved to Florence), the Classical Music Festival (canceled), the great Manet exhibition (moved to Milan, to the Palazzo Reale, due to lack of agreement between organizers and the City Council) and several other events. And again: the absence of a long-term program on museums and the absence of exhibitions of national appeal (the only one in the last year was perhaps the one on Miró at Palazzo Chiablese) have led, in contrast to the rest of Italy, to widespread declines that in 2017 caused a decrease of about 200.000 visitors in civic museums compared to 2016, with the negative record of the GAM, which dropped by one hundred thousand visitors, the Civic Museum of Palazzo Madama, which managed to lose about ninety thousand visitors in one year, and the Museum of Oriental Art, which saw a drop of twenty thousand visitors. And that’s not all: the closure of GAM’s Art History Library was threatened (fortunately averted at the moment thanks to an appropriation from the region), and the conspicuous cuts to culture decided by Giunta Appendino (more than 5 million euros less for the Fondazione Torino Musei alone, all in order to rebalance the financial structure of the municipal budget) have led to 28 layoffs at the Fondazione Torino Musei (later rehired, half of which thanks to the region’s contribution to the library). The balance is, in short, decidedly negative: there is a lack of strategy and planning, a lack of far-reaching vision, a lack of willingness to invest in the sector (indeed, so far it has been cut), and a lack of a strong figure in the culture department.

In Livorno, the Nogarin junta focused on museums with its first culture alderman, Serafino Fasulo, who was later expelled due to internal problems within the 5 Star Movement. The action then continued with the new alderman, Francesco Belais, who, in contrast to what happened in Turin, increased the item related to culture in the municipal budget (these are, however, minuscule figures, under two hundred thousand euros), reorganized the city’s library system and also promoted a reorganization of the Labronica Library, the main library in the Tuscan municipality, and inaugurated a new one, the Municipal Library of the Bottini dell’Olio Cultural Pole (although work had already begun under the previous administration), and promoted the establishment of a “Museum of the City,” financed with regional funds and intended to house ancient and modern works within a path that traces Livorno’s history, which will open right in the Bottini dell’Olio complex (however, the opening, scheduled for late 2017, has been postponed, although work is on the home stretch). Livorno’s Pentastellati are blamed, however, for a propensity to focus on situations with little appeal from outside the region, and a lack of inclination to bring tourists to the city.

On the other hand, the Leghist front appears to be more compact: in almost all administrations where there is a councillor for culture under the Carroccio (to be noted, however, is the case of Novara, led by a Leghist mayor, and where, however, there is no council expressly dedicated to cultural policies), culture is understood substantially in terms of a tourist asset and a set of traditions typical of the territory. Symptomatic is the program of Massimo Polledri, Piacenza’s councillor for culture and a Leghista of the first hour (he boasts a militancy in the League since 1993), who, interviewed shortly after his appointment by the local newspaper Libertà, declared his intention to focus on territorial marketing, on the “Piacenza brand” to boost the city’s touristappeal, and on the figure of Vittorio Sgarbi as consultant for artistic events. However, so far the only results achieved in just a few months have been the cuts that have mainly affected theaters and cultural associations, the drastic downsizing of Piacenza Jazz Fest, and the cancellation of the Festival del Diritto, a festival that over the years has involved numerous personalities of Italian culture (it would be idle to list them) and that in 2018 would have celebrated its tenth anniversary.

The League also administers two major regions in northern Italy, Lombardy and Veneto. In Lombardy, Leghist councillor Cristina Cappellini, placed at the head of the “Direzione Generale Culture, Identità e Autonomie” (and already the name of the institute says a lot about the visions of the League), has distinguished herself by introducing an attractive regional season ticket to regional museums and by investing about 160 million euros in culture during the five years of her mandate (as is well known, last March 4 elections were held for the renewal of the Lombardy regional council, which saw a new victory of the center-right led by the Leghist). Funding went to projects for the recovery and restoration of cultural heritage, projects to bring citizens closer to the heritage, and projects for enhancement. But 2016 also saw the approval of a regional law on culture that was incapable of intervening forcefully on many of the sector’s problems (starting with labor and conservation), and was branded by the opposition with excessive localism (especially in its velleity to promote “the preservation and enhancement of the Lombard language”) and reactionary conservatism in its understanding of culture as a recovery of regional identity. Cristina Cappellini has then gained national recognition for initiatives that are, to say the least, questionable and anachronistic, such as the Sportello Famiglia, renamed by detractors as the “anti-gender switchboard” because it was presented as a service also useful to “oppose gender ideology” (then fortunately closed) or the now famous Family Day ad directly on the windows of the Pirellone, the object of countless sneers on social media. Finally, in the Veneto region, there is the presence of a “councillor for territory, culture, security and sport,” Cristiano Corazzari, whose action has been characterized by the idea of focusing on cultural enterprises (just in November, almost 12 million euros were allocated to enterprises operating in culture), for the promotion of a web portal dedicated to the cultural heritage of the Veneto region, and for interventions in the field of tourism promotion.

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