Picasso, Spanish Modernity and the Florentine Perspective

PICASSO, SPANISH MODERNITY AND THE FLORENTINE PERSPECTIVE

By Georgia McGoldrick

Photo by Isabella Martini

Fall 2014 PR Strategies students collaborate with Palazzo Strozzi for the digital promotion of the current Picasso exhibition.

The autumn months of 2014 mark a particularly significant time for Florentine art. For the first time ever, the city of Florence displays a beautiful exhibition based on Pablo Picasso and Spanish Modernity at the Palazzo Strozzi Museum, which opened in September 2014 and will last until January 2015.

Regarding the exciting new exhibition, a press conference was held on September 18th, at the Palazzo Strozzi Museum. The conference hosted several important individuals who were involved in the creation of the new exhibition. Many press groups attended alongside some fellow classmates and myself. The crowd was eager to learn about the creation process of the new exhibition as well as its key contributors. After the conference, attendees were invited to walk through the exhibition for the first time.

Not only does the exhibition display major works from one of the greatest painters of the twentieth century, Pablo Picasso, but further explains his influence and life story. The exhibition also highlights several other Spanish modern artists such as Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí, Juan Gris, Marie Blanchard, and Julio González. The exhibition consists of several rooms, which tell a different story of Picasso's inspiration, including tragedy, nature, eroticism, and perspective. The exhibit is particularly important due to the fact that there are about 90 works displayed by Picasso and other famed Spanish artists, which have never been shown in such quantities outside of Spain.

This new and fruitful relationship between Spanish and Italian art definitely shows the diverse efforts of the Palazzo Strozzi museum to create something special for the city of Florence.

FUA PR Strategies instructor Isabella Martini shares:

Starting from Fall 2014 semester, Public Relations Strategies course students have been involved in an ongoing cooperation project with Palazzo Strozzi Foundation. Palazzo Strozzi has become one of the most lively cultural institutions in Florence since its opening to the public in 2006. "The aim of the foundation was to transform the city" and to give back the palace to the city,” in the words of Director James M. Bradburne. And indeed, Palazzo Strozzi has become a place where cultural offer aims at involving citizens and a national and international audience on a full scale, particularly from an educational point of view. This is why a pilot cooperation project has been designed between the Public Relations Strategies course and the public relations staff of Palazzo Strozzi. PR Strategies students have been involved hands-on within the promotional activities of the exhibition Picasso and the Spanish Modernity, being invited to work on official promotional material such as press kits, both as class activities and as further source of closer examination, in connection with Palazzo Strozzi social media promotional activity. Most importantly, the students have been involved first-hand in experiential learning activities, whereby they have been invited to take part to the official opening press conference of the Picasso and the Spanish Modernity exhibition. Students were asked to work alongside Palazzo Strozzi PR staff, and in particular with Lavinia Rinaldi and Riccardo Lami, to promote the event by live social media posting on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. As a result, #fuapalazzostrozzi is the official hashtag created both for the event and for any further cooperation projects of the two institutions. The aim of the activity was to present and involve students with first-hand promotional practice within a cultural institution based on the Florentine territory, addressing international audience at all levels. Further projects have been devised to keep involving students of the Public Relations Strategies course, with reference to cultural events promoted by Palazzo Strozzi – in particular with upcoming new exhibitions of both Palazzo Strozzi and, on a more challenging level, of the Centre for Contemporary Culture Strozzina.