Try to reconcile the beauty of art with the concreteness of business and doing business, enhancing both aspects. It is with this assumption that the Art Enterprise project was born in Florence, with the aim of combining the themes of economic and cultural enhancement of the artistic heritage and contemporary art as a means of promoting the identity and brand of the company, as well as goods and services offered by them in the current circular economy context.
This was discussed during the conference “Art Enterprise: the portrait of an enterprise”, which took place on Wednesday 23 June at the Palazzo Rosselli del Turco, home of the European School of Economics, in Florence. During the debate, in addition to the Councilor for Culture of the Municipality of Florence Tommaso Sacchi, the Councilor for the Budget of the Municipality of Florence Federico Gianassi and the Councilor for Culture of the Municipality of Prato Simone Mangani – who brought the greetings of the administrations -, Elio D’Anna, founder and president of the European School of Economics, Massimo Morisi, of the University of Florence, Giovanni Gasparini, collaborator of ArtEconomy24 – “Il Sole 24Ore”, the lawyer Luca Marasco, of the RASS Associati studio and expert of law of new technologies, Avv. Cino Benelli, administrative lawyer and Antonio Budetta,
The Art Enterprise project is mainly dedicated to companies and people who want to differentiate themselves not only in the product or service they offer but also in communication and in the way of representing themselves. And the starting city could only be Florence, a place rich in culture and art, but with the desire to replicate it in the main Italian cities. Art Enterprise is aimed at companies that conceive contemporary art as a physical but at the same time immortal good, as well as a means to communicate their image and philosophy. It is a vehicle for promoting, disseminating and enhancing the corporate brand and the goods and services offered by companies which also allows you to increase your reputation.
This project, in fact, does not only involve the use of artists to create an advertising campaign or the representation of a product, but the opportunity to create a real collection that the company can exhibit in its spaces and offices and which becomes a tangible, long-lasting asset that helps its employees to live in a welcoming environment. The artist is not only the means to furnish the rooms of a company but a real communication agency with which to convey the unique message of its founder. The works created by the various artists can thus become advertising campaigns, shop windows, unique fabrics and prints, architectures for the outdoors. Furthermore, with the help of technology and digitization,
Attorney Cino Benelli declares: “Companies in Italy can become places of culture and contribute to its diffusion. To date, in our country, there are insufficient incentive measures for this type of business initiative. The one that comes closest is the Art Bonus which, however, is still, in a limiting way, conceived as a form of patronage. Instead these activities must be conceived as business actions to be carried out through art. Indeed, art has always proved to be an extraordinary instrument of value and economic promotion in the most difficult moments of history, such as the one we are experiencing today. We hope, thanks also to the birth of this project, that some support measures will be defined in the PNRR, first of all an ad hoc regulation for the ‘corporate art collections’ which, on the French model, first of all, it allows companies to obtain important tax reliefs. Currently, small and medium-sized enterprises cannot afford to set up foundations and it is important, instead, that the government does everything possible to make this happen, thanks to concrete support to achieve resilience and recovery also through art “.
“Beyond the financial skyscrapers, the industrial pyramids, beyond the discoveries and achievements of science and everything that as humanity we consider beautiful, useful and true, there is always a man’s dream” – says Elio D’Anna, Founder and President of the European School of Ecomomics -. “Economics is the art of dreaming. It is the ability to transform the impossible into possible and then into inevitable. Only a humanity educated in the art of dreaming, in beauty, in truth, only a dreaming, intuitive humanity can project a more just world, a richer economy, a brighter future.”
Antonio Budetta, director of Aria Art Gallery: “Art Enterprise supports companies in communicating their identity through the creation of contemporary art collections that perfectly adhere to the brand. It is a project that goes beyond traditional advertising paradigms, meaning the work of art as a sensitive vehicle capable of expressing the vision of a company, describing its evolution and enhancing its image, communicating the focal points to both society and to customers, as well as to its employees. A personalized art collection is therefore not just an economic investment, but a powerful communication tool ”.