Meet Italy’s New Culture Minister: Former Rai 2 News Supremo Gennaro Sangiuliano Plans To Shake Up Performance Art Funding
25.10.2022 - 11:31
/ deadline.com
Citing 19th Century patriotic poetry and Mussolini-era writers and philosophers, the freshly appointed culture minister of Italy’s new right-wing government has promised a new era for the country’s cultural sector and revealed he wants to reform state funding for the performances arts.
Gennaro Sangiuliano is among 24 ministers in the new government of Giorgia Meloni, who was sworn in as Italian prime minister on Sunday, three-and-a-half weeks after her far-right Brothers of Italy party (Fratelli d’Italia) swept to victory in general elections.
Sangiuliano arrives from state broadcaster Rai, where he worked since 2003, rising through the ranks to become editor-in-chief of news programming at Italian state channel Rai 2 in 2018.
He replaces Dario Franceschini of the centre-left Democratic Party, who was Italy’s longest-serving minister of culture, and the TV and film worlds are now waiting to see what this means for the sectors.
The new minister told Rome newspaper Il Messaggero that public funding was essential for culture, but that public institutions needed to change their mentality to be “more active and enterprising.”
“It’s a mistake to be afraid of private individuals and the market, to be closed up like a hedgehog and to be wary of any intervention, help or support from outside,” he said.
Sangiuliano revealed he wanted to overhaul the Single Fund for Entertainment (Il Fondo Unico Per Lo Spettacolo – FUS) and the way its subsidies are meted out.
Created in 1985, the FUS, which was worth €400m ($394M) in 2022, oversees state support for the performing arts of dance, music and the theatre as well as circus companies and travelling shows.
Franceschini held the office from 2014 to 2018, and then from 2019 until