Culture: investments for 19 million for Florence in 2018
Florence - Nineteen million euros in investments, spread across requalification of cultural heritage and city libraries, a culture expenditure exceeding 40 millions and growing, and a new call for three-year contracts with cultural associations, which will provide financial certainty for the associations and make for a richer Florentine Summer, with up to a million euro budget. These are some of the main areas for intervention in the cultural sector in 2018. "The prestigious art and culture magazine Artribune included Florence in its #bestof2017, a list of the best cities, artists, museums, galleries and politicians of the year", underlined the city's Mayor and Councilor for Culture, Dario Nardella. "Florence turns out to be the top in Italy for events and exhibitions, particularly those devoted to public art. This result makes us proud, especially as it happens just a few weeks after the ranking of the Sole 24 Ore put our city in first place for culture and leisure, but also exhorts us to keep going forward along this path, with humility and commitment, and keep on improving our cultural offer for our citizens and visitors". As for figures, the 2018 budget estimates that were approved before the end of the year allocated 19 million euros to investments in the culture sector, that will be spent on maintenance of the historical walls of the city, its towers, facades and libraries; current expenditure will reach 40 million (just to have some kind of benchmark, the city's welfare expenditure is 50 million, expenditure for schools is 60). Meanwhile, the new call for financing of cultural projects for the next three years (2018-2019-2020) has been published. Participation is restricted to those 319 cultural associations and not-for-profit bodies that were surveyed by the city administration in 2015 and 2017. The call will close on 20 February.