A photo exhibition dedicated to Italian museum directors at Milan's Palazzo Reale

Opening on March 3, 2022 in the Sale degli Arazzi in Milan’s Palazzo Reale is the photographic exhibition Ritratte - Direttrici di musei italiani, which can be visited free of charge until Sunday, April 3, 2022. The art project featuring the signature shots of photographer Gerald Bruneau is part of the Bracco Foundation’s commitment to enhance women’s skills in different fields of knowledge and contribute to overcoming prejudices, so as to encourage an increasing number of women in top positions.

The exhibition illuminates the lives and professional achievements of 22 women at the helm of leading cultural institutions in our country, in a journey that touches 14 important Italian cities from North to South: from Trieste to Palermo, from Naples to Venice to name but a few. The main subject of “Portraits” is female leadership. Museums, “places sacred to the Muses,” are spaces dedicated to the preservation and enhancement of our artistic heritage, custodians of our past and laboratories of thought for building the future. They are also businesses with budgets and financial plans, contributing crucially to our economy. Leading such institutions involves multidisciplinary skills, a combination of deep knowledge of art history and managerial and creative abilities.

Among the exhibition’s protagonists are portraits of Francesca Cappelletti, Director of the Galleria Borghese in Rome; Emanuela Daffra, Regional Director of Museums of Lombardy (pictured); Flaminia Gennari Santori, Director of the Barberini Corsini National Galleries in Rome; and Anna Maria Montaldo, former Area Director Modern and Contemporary Art Pole of the City of Milan; Alfonsina Russo, Director of the Archaeological Park of the Colosseum; Virginia Villa, Director General Fondazione Museo del Violino Antonio Stradivari in Cremona; Rossella Vodret, Art Historian, former Special Superintendent for the Historical, Artistic and Ethno-anthropological Heritage and for the Polo Museale of the City of Rome; Annalisa Zanni, Director of the Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan.

Fondazione Bracco has long been committed to contributing to the construction of an equal society, in which merit is the criterion for career and visibility. In 2016, the project “100 women against stereotypes” (100esperte.it), conceived by thePavia Observatory and theGi.U.Li.A. Association and developed with Fondazione Bracco, was born for this purpose, thanks to the European Commission Representation in Italy. The online database collects excellent profiles of female experts, selected with scientific criteria, in various fields of knowledge, strategic for the country’s development, in order to increase their visibility in the media: the STEM field (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics - since 2016), experts in Economics and Finance (since 2017), International Politics (since 2019), History and Philosophy (since 2021). Suffice it to say that according to the Global Monitoring Project 2020 in Italy in the mainstream media women surveyed as experts are only 12 percent, compared to 24 percent in Europe. Alongside the online database, Fondazione Bracco has decided to develop a complementary narrative. In 2019, again thanks to the collaboration with Gerald Bruneau, the photographic exhibition Una vita da scienziata was created with portraits of some of Italy’s greatest female scientists, which has since been exhibited in numerous Italian and international venues, including Milan, Rome, Todi, Washington, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Mexico City, and next March 8 in Prague.

With a view to continuity and dialogue, the exhibition “Portraits,” dedicated to the field of cultural heritage, under the Patronage of the Ministry of Culture, adds an important piece to the intervention to combat gender stereotypes and promote skills, the only discriminator for any personal and collective development.

“We are truly grateful to Diana Bracco and the Foundation for their tireless commitment to supporting women’s leadership in all areas of knowledge and work,” said Culture Councilor Tommaso Sacchi. “A commitment that today is declined through the theme of the photographic portrait in a beautiful art exhibition that can be freely admired by all visitors to the Royal Palace. My gratitude also goes to the many women in Milan who are engaged in the museum field and who, thanks to their expertise and passion, preserve, promote and enrich the artistic heritage of our country.”

“Today at the helm of important cultural institutions in our country there are extraordinary female professionals who have reached top positions thanks to multidisciplinary skills, combining a deep knowledge of art history with managerial and creative abilities,” stresses Diana Bracco, president of Fondazione Bracco. “Enhancing their stories thanks to Gerald Bruneau’s shots seemed important to us to inspire similar paths from younger women. Indeed, with our Foundation’s #100experts project, we want to encourage women in all fields: from science to economics, from history to philosophy, from art to institutions.”

“My intention has been to highlight, along with the immeasurable vastness and beauty of Italy’s artistic heritage, the beauty of these women who strive daily to put museums back at the center of a cultural proposal elaborated in a network together with the most representative subjects of the realities in which they are immersed, invite participation, stimulate confrontation and critical thinking,” says photographer Gerald Bruneau. “Women who want to make museums new places for meeting and reflection, knowledge and communication, enhancing historical masterpieces and welcoming new artistic experiences. And who, for this, experiment with new and creative ways of cultural proposal. If we have the hope that beauty can save the world, it is also up to us, together with them, to save beauty.”

The exhibition is promoted and produced by Palazzo Reale, Comune di Milano Cultura and Fondazione Bracco under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture

For all information, you can visit the official website of Palazzo Reale.

A photo exhibition dedicated to Italian museum directors at Milan's Palazzo Reale

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