The full title of this free online text is “Art Cities, Cultural Districts and Museums. An economic and managerial study of the culture sector in Florence”. Using Florence as their primary example, the text discusses that cities with artistic, cultural and environmental resources should consider the potential these resources have to create wealth. They’re not talking about the intrinsic value of the individual items, but, the income that can be generated by carefully curating and making these items part of a model for economic development. The text shares a number of essays on “economic valorisation of the cultural, artistic and environmental heritage (CAEH) of the art city of Florence using a micro-macro economic approach…”
This cultural economics and managerial economics text was originated in the academic year 2000/2001 during a postgraduate course in Economics and the Management of Museum Assets. It is a book of essays about the expansion from conservation and curation of CAEH to a more sustainable business model, what the authors call economic valorization. It is not a traditional economics text with chapters and end of chapter exercises. I’ve included it here on The Free Textbook List as it seemed it would be useful to both art history students and economics students as a discussion of economic valorization (or economic valorisation to those living in the UK and Europe) with “real world” case studies.
“Art Cities, Cultural Districts and Museums. An economic and managerial study of the culture sector in Florence” was edited by Luciana Lazzeretti, Professor of Economics and Management of firms at the University of Florence. Lazzeretti was also one of the numerous contributors.
The folks at Firenze University Press in Italy have graciously shared this and other texts with the world for free. The majority of the textbooks on their site are written in Italian, however, this text on economic valorization is offered in English (the British version with it’s slightly different spellings than Americans might be used to). Their site is primarily written in Italian but the site design should make it easy to view the PDF file and explore for other English language textbooks.
Table of Contents for Art Cities, Cultural Districts and Museums
- Acknowledgements
- If I were a traveller…
- Introduction
- Part I – Art cities and cultural districts
- 1. The art city as a unit of analysis for strategic management. From the government of complexity to the government in evolution [Luciana Lazzeretti]
- 2. The art city as a HCLocal System and cultural districtualisation processes: the art-restoration cluster in Florence [Luciana Lazzeretti]
- 3. The cluster of Florence museums and the Network Analysis: the case study of “Museo dei Ragazzi” [Luciana Lazzeretti, Tommaso Cinti and Marco Mariani]
- 4. Dynamic and localised density dependence in the hotel industry: benchmarking between Florence (1940-1996) and Seville (1945-1999) [Luciana Lazzeretti, Giancarla Brusoni and Francesco Capone]
- 5. The economic enhancement of cultural and artistic heritage: a focus on Community programmes [Luciana Lazzeretti, Francesco Capone and Tommaso Cinti]
- Part II – Art cities and museums
- 6. The control system in non-profit organisations. A consideration of cultural organisations
[Barbara Sibilio] - 7. The enhancement of art assets through the establishment of foundations: the case of the Marino Marini Foundation in Florence [Francesca Papini and Niccolò Persiani]
- 8. Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence (1882-1905) [Marco Mainardi and Massimo Valeri]
- 9. The museum of the Opera of Santa Maria del Fiore: the history of the first twenty-five year of activity [Fabio Ciaponi and Francesco Dainelli]
- 10.The network of resources in museum management: the “New Palazzo Vecchio” in Florence [Elena Livi]
- List of references
- Lists of tables and figures
- List of contributors
View this Free Online Material at the source:
Art Cities, Cultural Districts and Museums
