A report, now available online, contains the Fondazione’s data analysis and account of its work from 2016 to 2023, with projections for the future.
Valsamoggia is a borderland a few kilometres from Bologna. Since 2015 it has united five municipalities, each with its own special features and places of historical, cultural and natural interest. Fondazione Rocca dei Bentivoglio (FRB) has become an expression of this union, promoting the intrinsic richness of the area and creating a network of its spaces, activities and cultural services.
FRB does many things: it manages five libraries, five archives, two museums, a music school, a law centre and a monumental complex in an integrated and unified manner. Furthermore, the Fondazione preserves, protects and promotes cultural and tourist events and initiatives. Let us not forget that for over forty years it has been organising “Corti, Chiese e Cortili”, the historic festival of sacred and popular music in some of the most beautiful and evocative places in the metropolitan area south-west of Bologna.
Between 2015 and 2016, BAM! worked alongside the Fondazione to rethink its communications and its positioning through a rebranding and digital strategy operation. The needs, objectives and targets of a cultural institution change over time, and so in 2021 we provided further support to update its strategy, ensure its communications are effective with regard to its new goals and strategically coordinate its internal resources.
Between January and May 2024, after interviewing key local stakeholders, analysing available data and documents, and reviewing all the cultural (and other!) promotional activities and projects, we worked together with the Fondazione’s staff to draw up a document summarising the work during Director Elio Rigillo’s eight-year term of office.
The analysis showed that the Fondazione’s activities have been expanded, integrated and enriched over the past eight years, spreading across the entire municipal area without overlooking metropolitan, regional and national collaborations and opportunities.
Is the report all about the past?
Yes and no. The report is certainly an analysis of the journey so far and a snapshot of the current state of affairs, but it is also a projection of what is to come. Current strengths and weaknesses have been highlighted in order to have the tools to meet future challenges and opportunities. Precisely because of this, we have included some “Notes for the Future” at the end of each chapter: notes that reverse the gaze from the past to the future and outline development trajectories.
Three things we have realised are more important than ever
As we delved into the eight years of the Fondazione’s work and made our way through the data, documents, sources and external research, it became clear that there are three skills and tools in particular that are important, if not indispensable, for analysing cultural offerings and their impact on communities:
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- knowing how to organise and collect data in an ongoing and strategic manner is essential to make the most of it and measure the impacts of a cultural organisation. Building and consolidating a data supply chain within a data strategy is something we believe should be done more and more, starting upstream;
- finding the right indicators and metrics to illustrate cultural developments and impacts is an engaging and crucial challenge, especially if the organisation spans several cultural sectors that intersect with each other, as in the case of the Fondazione (from libraries to music, museums and archives);
- over and beyond the data, cultural organisations’ greatest asset is their people, placed at the very centre. We are talking both about the professionalism of the staff and the ability to make it a united and cohesive team, and about the audience and the commitment to listening to different communities’ needs. This is what we never tire of repeating when dealing with participation and audience development, but also when designing communication strategies.
Where can I find the report?
The report is available online on the FRB website. Follow this link if you want to find out more about the Fondazione, learn more about the work carried out by the different sectors, discover its cultural offer and see its objectives for the years to come.
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