Between reputation and innovation. Evolving partnerships between museums and businesses

Abstract

After an analysis of the history of museums, particularly focusing on their shift from private to public spaces, this thesis will show what museums are today: they operate as social entities both in the artistic, social, and economic environments, where they have the capability to foster innovation through knowledge exchange. In particular, it is investigated the role of private contributions to museums, from donations to patronage, finally encompassing the key concepts of membership, sponsorship, and partnership with business organizations and their associated different levels of involvement. From a perspective that aims to enhance the reputation of the members and partners through a relationship based on finance and monetary transactions, we will introduce a model of partnership based on innovation driven by the intensity of the collaboration and the mutual exchange of knowledge, ideas, and expertise. The model is based on the results of the European project SACHE – Smart Accelerator of Creative Heritage Entrepreneurship, financed by the program Interreg Central Europe 2014-2020. We will conclude our discourse with the analysis of the project Casa Robegan, an idea that takes the roots of the projects SACHE and SMATH - Smart atmospheres of social and financial innovation for innovative clustering of creative industries in MED area, in order to build a functional model of art&business museums, which makes of the partnerships its workhorse, in a vision in which the firms, the museum, and the artists are deeply intertwined and contaminate their own field with suggestions, knowledge from the other areas of expertise. Casa Robegan is exemplary of the innovation that can potentially arise from a marketing strategy based on partnership, and it can be considered a case study since I worked in an internship with the cultural association TRA Treviso Ricerca Arte, one of the project's partners, during one of the most important phases of this project: its planning and design.