Uffizi Diffusi, new year with call: municipalities can apply for exhibitions

The Uffizi Galleries and the Fondazione CR Firenze have announced the launch of the new Uffizi Diffusi exhibition program, a project that aims to take art out of the big museum circuits and enhance small museums in the Tuscan territory. The new agreement, presented by Uffizi Galleries director Simone Verde and CR Florence Foundation president Bernabò Bocca, comes in the wake of the success of the previous Terre degli Uffizi initiative, which over the past four years has been able to combine exhibition quality, increased visitor numbers and promotion of local heritage.

“This new conception of Uffizi Diffusi,” says Simone Verde, director of the Uffizi, “will aim, thanks to the strategic partnership with Fondazione CR Firenze and its irreplaceable solidity, at a further momentum with the birth of real territorial poles of culture characterized by the development of long-lasting and nationwide expertise, as deserves a culturally and historically rich territory such as the one involved.”

“The Fondazione CR Firenze,” stresses President Bernabò Bocca, "is committed to promoting the development of the territory and the good of the community, through an articulated system of disbursements that embraces five main areas, including art and the enhancement of cultural heritage. In this context, the collaboration between local authorities and cultural institutions such as Le Gallerie degli Uffizi is a key element in the success of the Foundation’s initiatives, contributing significantly to the achievement of its mission in the cultural sphere with actions to promote and mediate cultural heritage, so that the enhancement of historical and artistic heritage, allows opportunities for growth and economic development for communities. With the new Uffizi Diffusi, therefore, we continue our strategic line of territorial cultural marketing Piccoli Grandi Musei, which for more than 20 years has been working to promote local cultural resources, from art to crafts, from landscape to traditional knowledge."

The numbers of Uffizi Diffusi so far.

The new agreement stems from the important results achieved with Uffizi Diffusi(here is an interview about the project with Eike Schmidt, the Uffizi director who conceived the initiative) and in particular with the Terre degli Uffizi project, which started in 2020. In four years, the Terre degli Uffizi program has led to 22 exhibitions in 13 municipalities, involving 15 museums in the territories of Valdarno, Valdelsa, Valdichiana and Florentine Chianti. The exhibitions showcased 80 works on loan from the Uffizi Galleries, leading to a 30 percent increase in visitors to the small museums involved. In all, the project brought in 45,688 visitors in 2021, 63,865 visitors in 2022, and 35,443 visitors in 2023: important numbers for small local realities, often far from large centers.

A particularly significant figure concerns the impact on new admissions: 72 percent of visitors said they visited the involved museums for the first time thanks to the Terre degli Uffizi exhibitions. Among tourists staying overnight in the affected areas, 30 percent cited these very exhibitions as the main reason for their trip, confirming the project’s effectiveness in boosting cultural tourism.

A look at the age of visitors: more than half are audiences over 46 years old (36.4% are over 60 and represent the majority group, while 24.1% are between 46 and 60 years old). 25.1% of the audience is in the 31 to 45 age group, 11% are young people aged 18 to 30, and those under 18 are 3.5% of the audience. Most of the audience is from Tuscany, but a good half of the visitors come from other Italian regions or from abroad. Still, 55 percent of the audience are visitors who stay overnight at least one night in the area, and of these, 30 percent said that visiting the exhibition was precisely the reason for the trip. This is mostly short tourism: 53.5 percent stay for a maximum of three days, although there is a good 29.6 percent who stay between 4 and 7 days, and 13.7 percent who stay from 8 to 15 days.

The new program and the call for municipalities

The most important novelty of the agreement concerns the call addressed to municipalities in the reference territories of Fondazione CR Firenze. The call is clear: submit original exhibition projects to be set up in small local museums. The projects, once submitted, will be submitted for evaluation by a joint commission composed of experts from the Uffizi Galleries and the Fondazione CR Firenze.

The initiative aims not only to give visibility to the local artistic heritage, but also to boost cultural tourism in less frequented areas, with a concrete impact on the economy of the territories involved. The agreement also aims to strengthen small museums by equipping them with state-of-the-art security systems and services in line with international standards, as well as encourage the professionalization of museum staff. The goal of the new “Uffizi Diffusi” program is to further expand the reach of the initiative, involving new museums, new municipalities and offering a concrete contribution to the cultural and economic growth of the territory. The diffusion of exhibitions in small towns will allow not only to decongest tourist flows in big cities, but also to bring art to a wider audience. So if the Terre degli Uffizi project was able to attract thousands of visitors and revive the image of small Tuscan museums, with the new Uffizi Diffusi program expectations are even higher. The professionalization of the museum staff and the improvement of the exhibition infrastructure will make it possible to offer the public an increasingly complete and engaging visitor experience, on par with international standards. The Uffizi Diffusi brand is thus poised to become a point of reference for the promotion of Tuscany’s artistic heritage, consolidating the link between large cultural institutions such as the Uffizi Galleries and small provincial museums.

Uffizi Diffusi, new year with call: municipalities can apply for exhibitions

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