The mandatory activities of the General Directorate- Contemporary Creativity of MIBACT fulfils different functions and roles in relation to the promotion, support and valorisation of contemporary Italian creativity, including photography and video-art, applied arts, including design and fashion, and architectural and urban quality. The DGCC also supports cultural and creative enterprises and promotes urban regeneration interventions.
In particular, the DGCC:
-promotes the values of contemporary art and architectural culture and the applied arts;
-promotes and supports Italian research, talents and excellence in the arts and architecture, photography, design and contemporary Italian fashion;
-promotes awareness of contemporary Italian art and architecture, photography, design and fashion abroad, without prejudice to the competences of and in agreement with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation;
-promotes creativity and production in the field of contemporary art and architecture, photography, design, fashion, and raising awareness and promoting the work of young artists and creatives, also through competitions;
- activates and promotes on the national territory innovative and participatory processes finalized to urban regeneration and development through culture, also through agreements and conventions with public and private institutions;
- promotes, after consulting the Directorate-General for Education, Research and Cultural Institutes, training programmes in collaboration with universities, regional governments and local institutions, in the field of knowledge of contemporary art and architectural and urban culture, photography, design and fashion;
- promotes, in agreement with the Directorate-General for Archives and other institutions in the sector, research activities, knowledge and enhancement of art, architecture, photography, design and fashion archives;
- ensures the coordination and implementation of initiatives for the promotion and support of cultural and creative industries on the national territory, in collaboration both with the other Directorates-General and with the other competent national and European administrations; it also coordinates the Desk in Italy on the Creative Europe Programme.
Within its functions, the General Directorate promoted since 2017 several initiatives and projects as follows:
- On Board project: Support for the mobility of emerging talents. Residency programmes for contemporary artists, designers and curators. Announcement of the winners;
-Talent Video Awards: Artistic Production dedicated to Images in movement;
- Shangai Awards: Residencies for emerging Italian and Chinese artists;
- Urban renewal research prize: National Competition open to PhD students from Italian universities, to assign a prize for studies in the field of urban renewal;
- Research grants for the study of the culture of photography: education of young scholars of contemporary photography by offering two one year Research Grants in the amount of EU 11,000.00;
- Premio New York : dedicated to emerging Italian artists who are active in the visual arts;
- Premio Berlino: promotes two residencies for young architects;
- Premio Mosca: promotes an artistic residency programme for emerging Italian curators;
- Barcellona Prize: promotes a residency prize for young designers interested in sustainable and low impact design;
- Premio Italy-China: promotes contemporary art residencies in China;
- The Premio AccadeMibac: promotes young Italian artists and valorize Fine Arts Academies as institutions offering a higher education in the arts;
- "Giornata del Contemporaneo" (The day of contemporary art);
- "Italy - Argentina Award for Art": an artistic residency program.
Within the monitoring and evaluation activities the General Directorate- Contemporary Creativity promoted a data platform from the "Archivi della video arte e dei film d'artista in Italia" (Archives of Video Art and Art Films in Italy). The project monitors collections of video and film works and documents (from 1965 to the present) conserved across Italy by public and private institutions to ensure their communication, conservation, valorisation, promotion, preservation, access and cataloguing.
Numerous researches has developed to specific and targeted projects, functional in all areas of action: art, architecture and suburbs (http://www.aap.beniculturali.it/eng/rapporto_attivita_15_17.html). The synergy between art and architecture and their osmosis has generated in recent years a positive creative energy, even collective, which has allowed the implementation of processes characterized by a strong ability to trigger precisely in places where social cohesion is to be favored. The suburbs, the urban space, the city have therefore been the field of action for the cultural growth of the territories, so that the country best expresses its national identity in the context of contemporary creativity and this is best exploited and on a par with what happens in the international field.
Since 2017, Italian design companies appear numerous: more than 30 thousand with employment to 50,226 workers. Compared to the previous years , both employees (+ 1.9%) and businesses (+ 5.6%), as well as turnover (3.8 billion EU) grew at a rate higher than the EU average (+ 0.9% against + 0.6%) . This is also attested by the success of the " Triennale International Exhibition in Milan", the inauguration of the first Italian "Museum of Design" ( at the Milan Triennale), and the success of the "Salone del Mobile", which recorded 12.5% more admissions than the latest editions.
Interest in photography in Italy has grown thanks also to proliferation of events, spaces, fairs and festivals including the most significant "MIA Fair". From 2020 we are witnessing, in Turin, the birth of a photography Festival built with the participation of public and private bodies and the support of local authorities.