New Cultural Centers as Spaces of Opportunities

Abstract

Over the last ten years we have witnessed throughout Italy the spread of new places of culture, intended as multidisciplinary and independent contexts in which languages ​​are experimented and the contemporary dimension is investigated, where different artistic disciplines intersect and contaminate each other. They are centers where theatrical and exhibition spaces coexist, local libraries, artisan workshops, artist residences, concert and projection rooms, they are contexts of activation and reactivation that recover abandoned sites and return them to the communities. They are hybrid places where cultural practice is combined with other sectors, such as services, education and training, agriculture, catering, manufacturing, coworking, cohousing, aspiring to overcome the boundaries between different worlds.  They host heterogeneous activities and services, thus facilitating the intersection of different audiences, who often touch and sometimes really meet, but are nevertheless invited to actively participate. They are the expression of a complex evolving process in our lifestyles, intertwining art, sociability, conviviality, leisure, work, politics.