Cultural institutions struggling for relevance: the story of changes at an Italian Foundation

In the last decades museums all around the world have been pressured by different forces and actors to rethink their social relevance and embrace new responsibilities and roles. Even though the dedicated literature outlines there is no single path to relevance, discussions generally focus on meaning-making, organisational change and relationship with the constituencies. A pitfall in the ongoing debate on relevance is the lack of analysis concerning how these internationally common challenges intersect with specific geographical, political and cultural factors, whose entanglement with one’s institution history and identity often transforms in resistances towards processes of institutional change. This paper analyses these multifaceted aspects through the case study of the Querini Stampalia Foundation in Venice, building on the interdisciplinary research carried out with Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (2016-2020) and the memoir of one collaborator of the Foundation and co-author of this paper. The paper intersects diverse methodologies and perspectives.