Circus shows, live contemporary music, traditional dances, book clubs, open air film screenings, guided tours, festivals of all kinds… these are just a fews instances of what the regional cultural offer can propose.

The stakeholders involved, imagining and implementing artistic initiatives, are distributed pretty evenly on the territory: local entities, institutions, Third Sector, artists and enterprises contribute to developing a heterogeneous and diverse offer.

In the last decade, also thanks to specific cultural policies, organizations have managed to rethink the services and products available: there are more and more initiatives aimed at experimenting with new artistic languages, at promoting traditions by exploring new techniques, and at innovating methods by co-designing with audiences.

Cultural offer and participation are, indeed, two sides of the same coin. A manifold and innovative artistic proposal can lead to an increase in the number of people involved in creative activities, generating tangible social and economic impact.

Actions designed to interest citizens with different backgrounds can encourage social inclusion and wellbeing: several studies have demonstrated the positive effects generated by cultural participation on health. Furthermore, a varied pool of creative and leisure activities works in favor of territorial attractiveness: it can stimulate new types of tourism, with positive externalities on other sectors, such as hospitality and commerce.

The regional cultural offer takes place in a wide array of spaces, from the more traditional ones – museums, libraries, cinemas, theatres – up to arts hubs and cultural centers, independent spaces run by young generations which characterize the cultural model of the Emilia-Romagna region.

Cultural consumption in this region is among the highest in Italy. Needless to say, though, Covid19 has left a mark: the pandemic has led to a decrease in the overall cultural spending, however it also led to renewed digital proposals which have been of the essence to address the lack of social contacts during lockdowns.