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Pro cultura
"Thus the chief task of education is above all to shape man, or to guide the evolving dynamism through which man forms himself as a man."
— Jacques Maritain, Education at the Crossroads, Source: archive.org ↗
"Pro cultura", Latin for "for culture". For house museums, artist foundations, archives, corporate museums and the other squares of culture: museum studios, schools, residencies, libraries, festivals, parks, exhibitions, small towns, neighbourhoods.
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The proposal
A role, not a package of services.
We become your museum's creative director: a figure an institution of your size cannot hire — and without whom everything that leaves the museum is decided on its own. Not an office, not a switchboard, not an account manager. A person, still there next year.
| We are not | We are |
|---|---|
| The person who decides how the museum looks | |
| A continuous presence, year after year | |
| A phone number with a first and last name | |
| One less supplier to manage |
What it includes
- Creative direction. The museum's visual and typographic identity system, defined and then defended. Everything passes through here before it goes out: posters, wall panels, social posts, invitations, catalogues.
- From curatorship to distribution. Scholarly texts become texts that are actually read, without losing a comma of rigour: rendering, editing, editorial plan, consistency. Including the versions for each context and audience — children, schools, the press.
- We talk to your press office. Almost every museum outsources PR, and almost none puts the agency in touch with whoever looks after the image. We become their counterpart: images in the right formats and in the right number, consistent captions, links that hold, an identity respected in the press release too.
- The infrastructure, kept alive. Website, servers, hosting, cloud, mail: everything that is needed, or everything that needs improving. Supplied, where possible, with certified renewable energy. European shared desktop, remote access for technical support, multiple users, IT and legal security, backups. Included, and never to be thought about again.
- The ⁂ Report. A daily dashboard and a periodic account — half-yearly or yearly — of the institution's communicative life. Not a panel of indicators for its own sake: the language to argue your own value before a board, a sponsor, a grant call — with the numbers in their proper place.
- Direct access. Phone, message, video call. No tickets, no bouncing around, no quote for every little thing.
No counting hours. We reply within the next working day. When a job turns into a real project we say so beforehand, applying discounted rates on the services that are charged and free quotes on anything communication might require that is not already under contract: we offer all-round solutions.
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Case studies
GAMeC — twelve years
Since 2014 we have looked after the digital network of the Galleria d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea in Bergamo: technical care of the website, administration of servers and mail. It was custodianship before we even called it that — and the only proof that really counts, because twelve years cannot be bought.
Fondazione Vico Magistretti
A website project that also becomes visit booking and integration with the archive, all the way to executive production.
→ Fondazione Vico Magistretti website
IDLands
Funded by MIBACT, within a broad cultural network, to promote Sicilian culture. We joined as a design partner in a funding application: it is one of the doors we keep preferring, because it costs the museum nothing and aligns the interests.
UNESCO Sites of South-East Sicily
The large-area system project that holds together the Val di Noto, Syracuse-Pantalica and the Villa Romana del Casale: architectural records, educational itineraries, guide training, an accessible website. Funded under Law 77/2006.
Extra Mœnia — A villa without borders
The Villa Romana del Casale at Piazza Armerina on the way to Expo Milano 2015: the mosaics re-read through food, in an educational programme that ran for six months with schools.
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Write to us to set up a first co-design breakfast.