Grande Brera opens up to private entities to strengthen services and enhance the museum complex. But it does so using an innovative tool – never before applied by a state museum in Milan – namely the special public-private partnership (Pspp), a measure provided for by article 134 of the new Public Contracts Code of 2023.
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An initiative that marks “a paradigm shift” in the relationship between public cultural institutions and private partners, as Angelo Crespi, general director of Grande Brera, said, which includes, besides the Pinacoteca, also Palazzo Citterio (inaugurated in December 2024) and the Braidense National Library.
Unlike traditional tools such as service concessions or sponsorships, in fact, the Pspp is based on a “horizontal” type of collaboration, which involves the shared co-design of initiatives and strategies for the enhancement of cultural heritage, from the outset, between the public institution and companies, associations or Third Sector entities.
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The specific objective of the initiative is to develop a shared management model “to improve hospitality, expand the cultural offer and contribute to the economic sustainability of the institution,” Crespi added. The partnership will involve private operators in the design and management of some services that will particularly concern the Pinacoteca and Palazzo Citterio. The most important project, in terms of size and ambitions, is the new Design Store that will be created at Palazzo Citterio and which will not be a simple commercial space, but will offer visitors an “extension of the cultural experience,” as explained by Marco D’Isanto, cultural economist and consultant to the Ministry of Culture, modeled on the great international “museum stores,” starting with the MoMA in New York.
The same logic underlies the other projects planned by the partnership, namely the design, setup, organization, and management of Bar Fernanda, inside the Pinacoteca; the Citterio Garden, a multifunctional reception space with a bistro; and cultural events and manifestations at Palazzo Citterio. All these projects and services, D’Isanto added, must be vehicles of the quality of the heritage preserved in Grande Brera.
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