The Seventh Report on Cultural Production in Venice – Producers and users was presented on the 11th December at the Foundation of Venice; it was elaborated by Sistema which provides the comprehensive and organic description of cultural activities developed in the city and in the provinces of Venice. The Report has been supported since 2003 by the Foundation of Venice in collaboration with the Foundation Venice 2000 and the Department of Cultural Production of the City of Venice. Thanks to the Report it is consolidated the instrument to observe and monitor the cultural world in the area of Venice, with the aim, on one side, to ensure the continuity of information related to occasional events and, on the other side, to provide the city and the promoters with a tool to understand and manage this system.

The data used in writing the Report have been gathered on the web site www.agendavenezia.org, conceived and produced by the Foundation of Venice. For years this web site, created in collaboration with the City of Venice and recently updated, has been the official reference point for all the events in the city; the web site gathers all the information on the cultural events promoted in the city and in the most important cultural centers of the provinces, highlighting who has produced them and where they have been hosted.

Number of events and event-days by type in the city of Venice

Source: analysis by Sistema on the basis of data provided by AgendaVenezia.org, 2009

In particular, during 2009, 2.167 cultural events took place in Venice. The size of the production of events which the Report refers to is described by few important data: 20.785 event-days, 140 organizers and 210 places where the events happened, spread in different areas of the city: 63.9% in the old town of Venice, 30.1% on dry land, and the rest in Lido and the other islands.

Percentage of events by territorial allocation

Source: analysis by Sistema on the basis of data provided by AgendaVenezia.org, 2009

The Biennale – International Art Exhibition has had a high incidence on the data related to this edition, in fact it has increased the incidence of Exhibitions (12.5%) on the total number of events which took place in 2009. Conferences and meetings are in the first place for number of events, followed by Music (19%), Film reviews (13.8%), Theatre (8.4%), Ballet (1.9%), Venetian traditions (0.6%), Sports and games (0.4%) and Fairs and markets (0.4%).

If we add the occasional events to the permanent structure of museums or other cultural institutions, it will be clear that this economic sector is able to foster a productive fabric which is of vital importance and strategic for the local development. We are assisting to the creation of a cultural industry which involves institutions, private museums, artists, publishers, communicators and advertisers, organizers and artisans.

The city and the economic operators, focused on the tourism sector, don’t seem to realise that this process produces great impacts on the local productive fabric. The operators involved in the cultural industry not always or not yet recognise themselves as part of the system of cultural production nor are they aware of the interdependences between different sectors because they give priority to their affiliation with associations if they are organizers, or to their being artisans or professionals rather than operators in cultural sectors.

The attention given by the Report to the sector of occasional events over the years allows the reconstruction of a new map of the city showing not only the places where the cultural events can take place but also the subjects involved in this production who certainly produce creativity, innovation and international relations. This map needs to be recognised firstly by the operators in order to consolidate, knowing that Venice can use culture as an important factor of development and competitiveness.