In Italy, continuous and structured support for artists and the creative professions is mainly indirect and targeted primarily at workers in the performing arts. The main instrument is the Fondo Unico per lo Spettacolo (FUS), set up in 1985 and managed by the Ministry of Culture. The Fund has the aim of providing financial support to bodies, institutions, associations, organisations and enterprises operating in the sectors of music, dance, theatre, circus and travelling show business, historical carnivals, as well as the promotion and support of events and initiatives of national character and importance taking place in Italy or abroad. The fund (which excludes film and audiovisual as this sector has its own fund since 2017) is established since 2017, by Law 220/2016, and slightly increased in the years 2014-2020.
More than 50% of the resources in 2020 were earmarked for the 14 lyrical symphonic foundations, 21% for theatre activities and about 18% for musical activities. Far smaller shares of the Fund are directed to the other sub-sectors listed in the chart below.
Moreover, in 2016, the Ministry of Culture launched the MigrArti project, based on Lotto Funds, which, through successive editions until 2018, has promoted the integration of immigrant communities residing in Italy, through the enhancement and dissemination of their cultures of origin, with particular attention to second-generation youth. It supports theatre, dance and music projects carried out by professional performing arts organisations, as well as short films and documentaries that were also presented at the Venice Film Festival. In the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 editions, the resources allocated amounted to approximately €800,000 each.
Table Allocations to Fondo unico per lo Spettacolo 2014-2020 (million euro)
| Fondo Unico per lo Spettacolo (FUS) | 2014 | 2017 (*) | 2019 | 2020 | Var. 2017-2020 (%) |
| Allocations to FUS | 403,34 | 333,72 | 345,44 | 348,97 | + 3,5% |
(*) As of 2017, the FUS no longer supports the film sector (in 2016 the support amounted to over 77 million euro) as a specific fund was established in 2017.
Source: Annual reports on the use of the Fondo Unico per lo Spettacolo (Ministry of Culture)
Breakdown of FUS resources by activity – 2020 (million euro)
In the visual arts sector, numerous initiatives have been launched and consolidated in recent years. For a long time this sector was characterised by the absence of a solid policy and programming aimed at promoting contemporary art and in favour of artists who were, in fact, supported mainly and indirectly through the main national exhibition institutions for contemporary visual arts, the Venice Biennale, the Milan Triennale and the Rome Quadriennale, to which the Museum of XXI Century Arts (MAXXI) was added in 2010.
The fragility and precariousness that has always accompanied the professional life of contemporary artists has emerged in all its seriousness in the last two years of emergency following the pandemic and so also the contemporary art system, at least in its more structured components, has benefited from the measures taken[1].
The main measures in favour of contemporary art and in support of artistic production can be traced back to Law 717/1949, which is still in force, and to the Plan for Contemporary Art (PAC) which the Ministry of Culture prepared annually from 2002 to 2015 and was recently reactivated (2020).
Law 717/1949, which provided for a share of expenditure on public works to be earmarked for the creation of works of art (between 2% and 0.5% depending on the amount of the investment), is designed to directly support contemporary artists. It has been implemented unevenly over time but has nevertheless enabled a considerable number of important works of art/art installations to be created. A selection of these works can be viewed by consulting the platform accessible on the Ministry’s website[2]. The implementation of the law has been accompanied by heated debates on critical operational and methodological issues, starting with questions concerning the dialectic between architectural design and artwork. The latest update of the law was that of 2017 and concerns the Decree of 15 May 2017 of the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport updating the Guidelines for art in public buildings.
As for the Contemporary Art Plan, Law N. 29/2001 allocated just over €5 million as of 2002 to an annual plan to increase the public contemporary art heritage. Since 2002, 50% of the resources have been allocated to the acquisitions of MAXXI, the National Museum of XXI Century Arts in Rome, and a further 50% to the Contemporary Art Plan (PAC), implemented through a public notice issued by the competent General Directorate of the Ministry. Generally speaking, the largest funding is for the Ministry’s structures and institutes, such as the National Gallery of Contemporary Art (GNAM) in Rome, the Central Institute for Graphics and other important institutions. Since 2010 the PAC has introduced some interesting experimentation by also financing institutions that do not deal directly with contemporary art but are interested in experimenting with a fusion of artistic languages; this has happened, for example, with the support of projects promoted by some archaeological superintendences. Since 2017 the PAC has been de facto suspended, at least in the form in which it was implemented in previous years, and resources have been channelled towards other initiatives, again in support of contemporary art, and mainly to finance the Italian Council.
The 2020 edition of the PAC, which addresses all areas and languages of contemporary art, architecture, design and fashion, has been greatly innovated and increased in resources (approximately €3,000,000). Public places of culture that intend to expand their collections with works by Italian and foreign artists have been involved, including those not specialised in the contemporary art sector. This edition of the PAC has supported i) new acquisitions by living artists or those whose works were created less than 50 years ago; ii) public commissions of works by artists, including site-specific ones; iii) the valorisation of works of contemporary art received as donations over the last three years.
Contemporary Art Plan (PAC) – Allocated resources years 2014-2016; 2020 (euro)
| CONTEMPORARY ART PLAN | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2020 | % Var. 2014-2020 |
| Resources allocated (euro) | 964.848 | 994.000 | 962.000 | 2.999.374 | 211% |
The Italian Council is a project of the Ministry of Culture (DG Contemporary Creativity) created in 2017 aimed at supporting, promoting and enhancing Italian contemporary art worldwide. Each year, the programme funds cultural projects aimed at the promotion, production, knowledge and dissemination of contemporary Italian creation in the field of visual arts in Italy and abroad. Over the years, the Italian Council has progressively broadened the scope of its support. Until 2019 it financed projects proposed by museums, public and private non-profit organisations, university institutes, foundations and committees and non-profit cultural associations involving the production of one or more works of art by an Italian artist, with the ultimate aim of increasing public collections, after a period of promotion abroad. Since 2019, it has also included direct support for the development of talents and the international promotion of Italian artists, curators and critics who collaborate with international cultural realities; in these editions, the programme has supported participation in international events and residencies abroad; from 2020, it also gives grants for the support of artistic, critical and curatorial research.
Italian Council – Allocated resources years 2017-2020 (euro)
| ITALIAN COUNCIL | 2017 I and II ed. | 2018 III and IV ed. | 2019 V, VI and VII ed. | 2020 VIII and IX ed. | % Var. 2017-2020 |
| Resources allocated (euro) | 922.956 | 1.972.989 | 3.845.385 | 3.290.828 | 257% |
| Projects funded (n.) | 14 | 44 | 47 | 56 |
At territorial level, moreover, the Regions and Local Authorities, not only converge in many cases with the initiatives promoted by the Ministry of Culture, in particular in support of artists’ mobility, but also promote artistic creativity with dedicated lines that are not easy to identify and survey precisely because of their territorial nature.
Lastly, it is worth mentioning the activities of other subjects which, for various reasons and with different aims, have been committed to contemporary art and artists for years through autonomous initiatives or by working alongside public institutions at central and local level and which often define and implement innovative policies for the sector.
The Association for the Circuit of Young Italian Artists (GAI) brings together 26 local authorities (Municipalities and Regions) and aims at documenting activities, offering services, organising training and promotional opportunities in favour of young people under 35 working in the fields of creativity, arts and entertainment, also using the portal created in 2001 http://www.giovaniartisti.it and the editorial products linked to its initiatives. It has carried out and continues to carry out numerous initiatives in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture and local authorities in support of the international mobility of young artists, new design and youth creativity in urban regeneration processes.
AMACI is the Association of Contemporary Art Museums founded in 2003 with the aim of supporting contemporary art and the institutional policies addressed to the sector. The most important initiative, now in its 17th edition in 2021, is the Giornata del Contemporaneo (Contemporary Art Day), supported by the General Directorate for Contemporary Creativity of the Ministry of Culture, during which museums, foundations, associations and artists’ studios in large cities and small towns open their doors to the public free of charge and a diversified programme of events is organised.
Lastly, there is the Contemporary Art Forum, set up in 2015, which has involved thousands of professionals and insiders over time to examine the main issues affecting the visual arts system. It has elaborated proposals on education, production, research, taxation, and ultimately for the legal status of artists, the absence of which has been highlighted as an element of serious criticism that has compromised the recognition of artists in the Italian welfare system in response to the pandemic.
[1] The evidence of the precariousness of the sector, generated by the pandemic crisis, has recently (March 2021) given impetus to the presentation of a draft legislation that contains “Provisions on the recognition of the professional figure of the artist and on the creative sector”, in the wake of the European Parliament Resolution of 2007 that had approved the Social Statute of Artists and promoted in the Member States the launch of policies and regulatory activities inspired by the protection of artists and creativity.
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