“Another Forlì in Forlì”: it is with these words that Gianfranco Brunelli, curator of the major exhibitions at San Domenico, announces the final visitor figure for the major 2024 exhibition dedicated to the Pre-Raphaelites. Even though there is just over a week left until the end, it can be estimated that the exhibition will close its doors with more than 115 thousand visitors. Precisely a “Forlì within Forlì”, since the city has 117 thousand inhabitants, therefore more or less the same number. Furthermore, it will end with a bang: on the last Sunday, June 30th, the opening will be extended until 11pm (with the ticket office closing at 10pm).
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“International success”
The exhibition “The Eternal and Time” reached 103 thousand visitors, the Liberty 123 thousand. The 2024 figure therefore makes the Pre-Raphaelites one of the most popular exhibitions among those organized by the Cassa dei Risparmi Foundation. “It was among the most important exhibitions at a European level this year, we have been recognized by critics at an international level”, again Brunelli. It was supposed to be the edition of redemption, after four problematic years like those of Covid first and the flood that overwhelmed the city afterwards. And so it was: “We have kept the point even in the most difficult years, where others might have interrupted”, always the vice-president of the Foundation.
VIDEO – The inauguration of the exhibition
The numbers indicate an enormous effort: 356 works from 44 English cultural institutions and private individuals, 39 from Italy and 17 from the rest of Europe and America. Every day on average 907 visitors entered, around 1.6 per minute. With a fairly constant flow: even the opening hours on Mondays – normally the closing day of museums – saw an influx of 600-700 people, while there was a Sunday which saw the arrival of as many as 45 groups, with two thousand people visiting on the same day. The exhibition then generated a “cultural impact” of around 70 events in the area.
We liked the formula of the comparison, also made effective by the displays, between the three generations of Pre-Raphaelites and Italian art from the end of the 13th century, in a systematic way section by section, with the final effect of the “return” influence of the English brotherhood on Italian art of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A round trip on the Italy-England axis that I brought to the exhibition “artists even unknown to the general public”, always Brunelli. And the originality of the scientific path has also attracted audiences from the United Kingdom, from English and American universities.
13% came from abroad
The number of foreigners is substantial, around 13% of the total: that is to say around 15 thousand tourists from abroad who stayed, if not all of them, in Forlì, within a radius between Bologna (those who arrived by plane are likely to have stopped there to sleep) and the Romagna Riviera. What are the impacts on the local economy? Brunelli is very cautious in giving estimates, but as with other past exhibitions before Covid “the multiplier is two or three times the investment made”. “A lot also depends on the type of exhibition, for this one for example the restaurateurs told us that they had worked hard and that the level of spending was higher,” explains Brunelli.
Who came and how much they spent
Research by the Foundation on approximately 900 visitors shows that approximately 7% of visitors spent an overnight stay in the area. If they spent little (less than 15 euros per person) they concentrated their spending on tickets and food, but as soon as the consumption threshold becomes higher (up to 40 euros per person) the percentage of catering and the purchase of a craft object. And as regards the spending carried out inside the San Domenico (58% of visitors), 67% spent from zero to 10 euros at the café, 30% up to 25 euros and 3% up to 50 euros . At the bookshop, just over half of customers (50.5%) spent between 25 and 50 euros, the other half less than 25 euros.
It should also be noted that as many as 90% of the visitors arrived in the city specifically for the exhibition, and are therefore almost all “pure tourists”, that is, attracted by the attraction of the exhibition, which they encountered in 55% of cases via the internet and social networks, which now represent by far the sources of information dissemination also in artistic tourism (note, however, also a 20% word of mouth effect). However, everyone appreciated the exhibition: positive opinions stood at 99%.
Again according to the same research, the Pre-Raphaelites affected a greater segment of young people (35% between 25 and 44 years; 42% between 45 and 65 years); 74% were graduates, with a strong prevalence of women (70% of visits). Two thirds of the visitors arrived in Forlì by car, but it should be noted that around 25% used the train (partly in combination with the plane that landed in Bologna). Two thirds of the audience is loyal (64.5% had already visited exhibitions at San Domenico) but there are also 35.5% new arrivals. 79% have visited other exhibitions in the last year. Finally, worth mentioning are the 150 visits by blind and partially sighted people.
Towards 20 years of great exhibitions in Forlì
It is the 19th exhibition organized by the Cassa dei Risparmi Foundation. Next year will be 20 years of consecutive commitment to making Forlì an attractive city of art from outside the territory and 20 years of the opening of San Domenico. It was December 5, 2005 when the Palmezzano exhibition inaugurated both the uninterrupted series of major exhibitions and the opening of the new museum structure. “At the time it was an experiment, then we understood that the best period for an exhibition in Forlì was the period between February and June,” says Brunelli.
What should we expect for the twentieth anniversary edition? As per tradition, the announcement will be made in Milano Marittima a few days before Ferragosto. But we can already say, as Brunelli explains, that it will be “a reflection on the meaning of art and the artist”. Therefore not so much the analysis of a period or an artistic current, but “making a summary of art as such”.
Finally, Brunelli’s role in the development of the major exhibitions at San Domenico is highlighted by Luca Zambianchi, president of Civitas, a company of the Carisp Foundation: “This exhibition was also pulled out of Brunelli’s hat, thanks to his culturally complex personality which it is then reflected in the scientific choices of the exhibitions. They are unique pieces that are then copied from other parts. The ‘Brunelli method’ should be exported”.
