D.directors of Museums. There is also a glass ceiling in the world of culture. Fernanda Wittgens broke it in 1940, the first woman to win a competition for a state museum, appointed director of the Pinacoteca di Brera. Today, women in the Ministry of Cultural Heritagewhere they make up 78/80 percent of the staff, they reach top positions more easily, although there are more men at the executive level; According to data from February this year, out of 4,265 museums, both public and private, 500 are state-owned. Of these there are 44 “of significant national interest with special autonomy”, in which the guidelines are 19 and 18 regional, where men and women are equal.
It is the sign of a significant change, also demonstrated by a recently concluded exhibition at the Palazzo Reale in Milan. Ritratte – Directors of Italian museumsorganized by Bracco Foundation, which for the first time focused its attention on 22 professionals who have managed, thanks to their talent and determination, to conquer the top of the most important Italian museums. Some of them are told below.
Rossella Vodret
Former Special Superintendent for the artistic and anthropological heritage and for the Polo Museale of the city of Rome
Rome: Rossella Vodret, Superintendent for the Historical, Artistic and Ethno-anthropological Heritage of Lazio. © Gerald Bruneau
Art historian and university professor, full-bodied institutional curriculum (Superintendence in Calabria and Lazio), Rossella Vodret is one of the leading experts of Caravaggio (the most recent study: Caravaggio 1571-1610, Silvana Editoriale 2021). “My generation, which lived through ’68, was a rupture. Aware that we had to be prepared, determined and concrete, we reached the top slowly. The safety of the new generations arises from our struggles. Women, a presence of 80 per cent, did not reach the top positions, except for some extraordinary figures like Palma Bucarelli at the National Gallery of Modern Art from ’42 to ’75 ».
Cristina Acidini
President of the Academy of Drawing Arts, the Casa Buonarroti Foundation, the Opera di Santa Croce and the “Roberto Longhi” Foundation for Art History Studies in Florence
Cristina Acidini © Gerald Bruneau
Cristina Acidini, super expert art historian of Michelangelo Buonarroti, was Superintendent of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure and of the Florentine Museum Complex. Today she, the first woman in 450 years, she presides over the Academy of Drawing Arts (in addition to other institutes). “Culture has always been open to women, but there was a glass ceiling, which we have cracked over time. Contests were the key to the rise to leadership. In my case at 40, which caused some discomfort. They mistook me for my secretary.
To stay close to the family, I gave up on more important positions in Rome, but working in Florence is extraordinary and challenging. The History of Art is no longer a job for good ladies ».
Enrica Pagella
Director of the Royal Museums of Turin
Enrica Pagella © Gerald Bruneau
Art historian, since 2015 she has directed the museum complex of the Royal Museums. «Culture is a sector in which the presence of women is strong, less so in roles of high responsibility, perhaps because it belongs to the sphere of taking care of things, with little funds. Personally I have never had any problems, but I could cite several episodes on what it means to be a woman in a world that is not strictly male, but ruled by men. In the documents I sign myself as director (like Laurence des Cars, the first woman in 228 years to direct the Louvre Museum), and we distinguish between historian and art historian, but our young architects prefer to sign themselves as architects: for them it is something out of date ” .
Annalisa Zanni
Director of the Museum Poldi Pezzoli in Milan
Annalisa Zanni. © Gerald Bruneau
Graduated and specialized in Art History, director since 1999, he has been working at the museum for 40 years, first in the didactic section (a novelty at the time), then as a curator. «We are a private house museum and as an artistic foundation we are more autonomous, albeit with the protection of the Superintendency. Our once all-male Board of Directors also includes women. I have never had particular pressure thanks to my determination and to Anna Mottola Molfino, director until 1998, who paved the way to give more power to the director. I have an almost all female curatorial staff, while the custodians are mostly men. Together we work to make visitors feel at ease ».
Andreina Contessa
Director of the Historical Museum and the Park of Miramare in Trieste and the Regional Directorate of Museums of Friuli Venezia Giulia
Trieste: Andreina Contessa, director of the Miramare Museum and Park © Gerald Bruneau
Art historian, Andreina Contessa, has been directing Miramare since 2017 and since 2020 she is also responsible for the regional museums. You come from a long experience of museum management and teaching at the University in Jerusalem. «In our sector the presence of women is strong – less so in the general directorates of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage – perhaps because culture is considered not very productive. Only in recent years has it been realized that it can be one of the great drivers of the economy. As a woman, I sometimes see how much female capacity, strength and determination are underestimated, which as far as I’m concerned I apply to Miramare’s projects, including research on collections and restorations, including the park ».
Gabriella Belli
Director of the Venice Civic Museums Foundation
Gabriella Belli © Gerald Bruneau
Gabriella Belli, historian and art critic, after a long period at MART in Trento and Rovereto, has been directing 11 museums since 2011 (which is also mentioned on page 64) including Palazzo Fortuny, reopened with the rearrangement by Pierluigi Pizzi. «Courses of studies in the humanities and public competitions have proved successful for women in our sector. We were able to grow professionally precisely because men were oriented towards more profitable careers. Today the female presence is rebalancing itself with the male one. I arrived young at the peak of my career, always facilitated by my life partner. Episodes of machismo? I have registered several with colleagues, but now there is more awareness of gender equality “.
Eva Degl’Innocenti
Director of the Archaeological Museum of Taranto
Eva Degl’Innocenti © Gerald Bruneau
Academic training in Italy, experiences in France, archaeologist and museology expert, Eva degli Innocenti, has been running the MArTA since she was 39 years old. “When
I won the competition I was the youngest director in Italy. I found out they called me “the little girl” or “the little girl” and had attributed a lover to me. It wasn’t easy, but I’m achieving my goals. The secret? Teamwork and a strategic plan to transform the MArTA into a square, a 21st century Agora, linked to the community. And then the digitization of 40 thousand works, a new layout, the restyling of the hall, the cafeteria and the restoration of the original entrance to the cloister. To bring archeology into the present.
Tiziana Maffei
Director of the Royal Palace of Caserta
Tiziana Maffei © Gerald Bruneau
Architetto of heritage and landscape, expert in museography, highly articulated curriculum, has been at the Royal Palace of Caserta since 2019. «Here I have the opportunity to devote myself to an experimental vision of a contemporary museum. A complex reality, including park, English garden, 60-hectare wood, Palatine Library, Historical Archive, Terrae Motus contemporary art collection and the water system. There are many projects, from Bourbon greenhouses to the theater, which I hope to reopen in 2023, for the 250th anniversary of the death of Luigi Vanvitelli, architect of the Royal Palace. A total commitment that cost me a lot in terms of personal life, but I do the most beautiful job in the world, the architect and the director ».
Francesca Cappelletti
Director of the Galleria Borghese in Rome
Francesca Cappelletti, director of the Galleria Borghese in Rome. © Gerald Bruneau
Full professor of History of Modern Art at the University of Ferrara, he has been directing the Borghese Gallery since November 2020. Specialist of the seventeenth century and of Caravaggio, he studies collecting from the Renaissance to the nineteenth century. «In our sector we are many, girls are the majority in university courses, but I notice that many stop after the three years. In the last decades the Borghese Gallery has always had some directives. During the lockdown we enhanced the online catalog and published the history of the works on the site. This first period of direction was dedicated to the artists’ relationship with nature and the landscape, now embodied in the exhibition The Sacred and Natureon Guido Reni ».
Tiziana D’Angelo
New Director of the Archaeological Park of Paestum and Velia
Tiziana D’Angelo
Youziana D’Angelo, with a degree in Classical Literature, archaeological address, professor of Greek and Roman art, has been in office since April, after winning the Ministry’s competition. «I have many projects and I count on a team of about 70 people, not many for an immense area, which includes a National Museum and two Unesco sites. I owe a lot to the women of previous generations (and to the men who shared their goals). Like Sandra Bruni Mattei, graduated in mathematics and feminist, founder in 1965 of the women’s section of the Collegio Ghislieri in Pavia, where I started studying archeology at 18. Gender discrimination? I didn’t suffer from itbut I have always carefully managed my femininity so as not to turn it into an obstacle ».
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