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Corporate art

A recently published research study relates art history to corporate activities linked to the enhancement of corporate heritage

 

 

Museums as sites of “productive”, live culture, especially when they belong to a corporate system that draws from the past, as well as from the present, in order to build a meaningful future. Museums that collect, enhance and share heritage – not just corporate heritage but also, in terms of manufacturing, territorial heritage, both of which would otherwise be lost. Virginia Spadaccini’s study, recently published in ZoneModa Journal and entitled “The fortune of the Ancient World’s heritage within the context of fashion museums’ communication in Italy”, revolves around these concepts.

The aim of the study is not only to demonstrate the contribution and communication potential that classics bring to Italian art history and, therefore, to Italian fashion history, but also to analyse the ways in which some of the most important enterprises in the fashion industry have harnessed their historical and cultural heritage.

Underlying it all, is the notion that past history and art were prodigiously instrumental in obtaining validation from certain areas of the public opinion, as well as acting as promotional means that enhanced and revived organisations (including corporate ones) and perpetuating a craftsmanship legacy that we still notice nowadays and thus guarantees quality and reliability for the future, too.

Spadaccini, after an introduction that situates art appreciation within a more general historical context, proceeds to examine some instances of corporate museums that, more than others, have met their goal – such as the Salvatore Ferragamo Museum and the Gucci Garden, but also the Valentino Garavani Museum, the pioneering virtual fashion museum launched in 2011, which recalls the imagery of a modern temple such as the Ara Pacis Museum in Rome, with its “marbles” decorating the walls and large interior spaces marked by staircases and skylights. The researcher also examines different experiences, such as that of Brioni and Bulgari and, besides corporate museums and archives, also recalls some iconic exhibitions and fashion shows organised by luxury brands in cultural venues as a general expression of how the Ancient World’s heritage can be used as a tool in the narration of Italian fashion.

Spadaccini further notes that “A corporate museum’s activities are governed by the laws of profit, though profit cannot be measured in material terms, only immaterial ones: such institutions, as a rule legally classifiable as non-profit foundations, must bear maintenance costs that are significantly greater than their income. As such, the benefits they bring can be measured in superbly communicative terms: the image return that companies gain when they open a museum endows them with authoritativeness and greater engagement.”

As the author (from the University of Chieti-Pescara) concludes, the collaboration between cultural sites and major enterprises, as well as the strategies that support them, also fulfils another purpose: they do not merely “benefit brands in terms of image return” but also “institutions that, able to rely on factors such as their own financial means or guaranteed media coverage in fashion publications, succeed in recovering their financial situation and avoid the oblivion in which they seemed doomed to plummet. Hence, this seems to be the key starting point from which Italian museums could communicate and enhance fashion as indissolubly linked to craftsmanship and art, as a typically Italian trademark.”

The Fortune of the Ancient World’s Heritage Within the Context of Fashion Museums’ Communication in Italy

Virginia Spadaccini

ZoneModa Journal. Vol. 12 No. 1 (2022)

A recently published research study relates art history to corporate activities linked to the enhancement of corporate heritage

 

 

Museums as sites of “productive”, live culture, especially when they belong to a corporate system that draws from the past, as well as from the present, in order to build a meaningful future. Museums that collect, enhance and share heritage – not just corporate heritage but also, in terms of manufacturing, territorial heritage, both of which would otherwise be lost. Virginia Spadaccini’s study, recently published in ZoneModa Journal and entitled “The fortune of the Ancient World’s heritage within the context of fashion museums’ communication in Italy”, revolves around these concepts.

The aim of the study is not only to demonstrate the contribution and communication potential that classics bring to Italian art history and, therefore, to Italian fashion history, but also to analyse the ways in which some of the most important enterprises in the fashion industry have harnessed their historical and cultural heritage.

Underlying it all, is the notion that past history and art were prodigiously instrumental in obtaining validation from certain areas of the public opinion, as well as acting as promotional means that enhanced and revived organisations (including corporate ones) and perpetuating a craftsmanship legacy that we still notice nowadays and thus guarantees quality and reliability for the future, too.

Spadaccini, after an introduction that situates art appreciation within a more general historical context, proceeds to examine some instances of corporate museums that, more than others, have met their goal – such as the Salvatore Ferragamo Museum and the Gucci Garden, but also the Valentino Garavani Museum, the pioneering virtual fashion museum launched in 2011, which recalls the imagery of a modern temple such as the Ara Pacis Museum in Rome, with its “marbles” decorating the walls and large interior spaces marked by staircases and skylights. The researcher also examines different experiences, such as that of Brioni and Bulgari and, besides corporate museums and archives, also recalls some iconic exhibitions and fashion shows organised by luxury brands in cultural venues as a general expression of how the Ancient World’s heritage can be used as a tool in the narration of Italian fashion.

Spadaccini further notes that “A corporate museum’s activities are governed by the laws of profit, though profit cannot be measured in material terms, only immaterial ones: such institutions, as a rule legally classifiable as non-profit foundations, must bear maintenance costs that are significantly greater than their income. As such, the benefits they bring can be measured in superbly communicative terms: the image return that companies gain when they open a museum endows them with authoritativeness and greater engagement.”

As the author (from the University of Chieti-Pescara) concludes, the collaboration between cultural sites and major enterprises, as well as the strategies that support them, also fulfils another purpose: they do not merely “benefit brands in terms of image return” but also “institutions that, able to rely on factors such as their own financial means or guaranteed media coverage in fashion publications, succeed in recovering their financial situation and avoid the oblivion in which they seemed doomed to plummet. Hence, this seems to be the key starting point from which Italian museums could communicate and enhance fashion as indissolubly linked to craftsmanship and art, as a typically Italian trademark.”

The Fortune of the Ancient World’s Heritage Within the Context of Fashion Museums’ Communication in Italy

Virginia Spadaccini

ZoneModa Journal. Vol. 12 No. 1 (2022)