Arturo Galansino, director general of Palazzo Strozzi: ‘Florence was once a city of experimentation. My mission was to bring that back’

In 2015, Arturo Galansino posed himself a question: should there be more contemporary art in Florence?

At first, it might sound like an innocuous proposition. But the Italian curator, who had a reputation for staging operatic exhibitions, knew that the answer could have huge consequences in a city that’s arguably the centre of the Old Master universe.

He decided to contact Ai Weiwei, who had recently had his passport returned by the Chinese authorities, and invite him to become the first artist to take over an entire Renaissance palace for a contemporary exhibition on a scale Florence had never witnessed before.

The show, Libero — meaning ‘free’ — opened in September 2016, filling a labyrinth of vaulted rooms at Palazzo Strozzi with Ai’s videos, photographs and sculptures. In an incendiary move, the artist also strapped 22 inflatable orange dinghies to the building’s 500-year-old façade, referencing the Italian coastguard’s role in the ongoing migrant crisis. ‘A real punch in the face’ is how Galansino described the installation.

The local press and public were outraged, but the ensuing debate sparked international interest. The show went on to achieve some of the highest visitor numbers of any contemporary art exhibition ever held in Italy, propelling the institution to record financial results.

For 48-year-old Galansino, the history of art has never been linear — more a pool of ideas to be plucked from. Born in Piedmont, he attended university in Milan, where he studied the links between the rise of ‘Caravaggiomania’ and the emergence of the Nouveau Réalisme movement. Then came a doctorate on the work of Giovanni Previtali, an art historian who fused the tradition of connoisseurship with Marxist theory.

In 2008, he entered the world of museums, courtesy of a former professor who asked Galansino if he would help him organise an exhibition on Andrea Mantegna at the Louvre. After working on a follow-up exhibition, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese: Rivals in Renaissance Venice, Galansino joined London’s National Gallery in 2010. The first show he worked on was Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan, for which visitors camped overnight in Trafalgar Square to glimpse the newly attributed Salvator Mundi.

Three years later, the position of curator at the Royal Academy became available. ‘My ambition was to bring back big, scholarly Old Master shows there,’ he says. In 2014, he opened the first exhibition in the UK dedicated to the Mannerist painter Giovanni Battista Moroni; the following year, he co-curated the epic Rubens and His Legacy, which spread across the entire main gallery.

But by the time the Rubens show opened, Galansino had already announced his next move — to become director general of Florence’s Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi.

Created in 2006, the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi takes its name from the 16th-century palace it occupies in the heart of Florence, which in turn was named after its builders, the Strozzi family — a dynasty of wealthy bankers and fierce rivals of the Medicis.

Between 2006 and 2015, the foundation — which has no permanent collection of its own — organised exhibitions covering the breadth of art history. ‘It was kind of a start-up period as the foundation figured out issues like funding. When they hired me, they wanted to change direction, and I had a clear idea: concentrate on exceptional shows that are once-in-a-lifetime — maybe even once-in-history,’ Galansino explains.

‘When I became director, everyone thought that I’d be curating a 100-per-cent Old Master programme,’ he continues. ‘But I knew before I’d even been hired that this would be a mistake. Florence is filled with Old Masters. Millions of tourists come every year to visit masterpieces in the museums and churches here. It would be like adding another drop in the ocean.’

The problem was, contemporary art had never been shown on this scale in Florence before. ‘There was a prejudice against it,’ says Galansino. ‘Until we started, everyone said, “Florence is not a city for a contemporary art. People come here for other reasons.”

‘But Palazzo Strozzi is a symbol of humanism, and a philosophical place. From the beginning, I wanted to use it to challenge artists and their practice, and to relive the Renaissance through the lens of contemporary art. Florence was once a city of experimentation. My mission was to bring that back.’

In the decade following the initial success of Ai’s show, Bill Viola, Anselm Kiefer, Carsten Höller, Marina Abramović, Anish Kapoor, Tomás Saraceno, Jeff Koons and Olafur Eliasson all staged ambitious projects in Palazzo Strozzi — each one personally curated by Galansino. Next is Tracey Emin. Sex and Solitude.

At the same time, Galansino has remained committed to Old Masters, most notably organising the mammoth show Donatello, the Renaissance, which opened in March 2022, before touring to the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin and the V&A in London. The largest exhibition ever devoted to Fra Angelico is due to open at Palazzo Strozzi in September 2025.

‘Every show starts from my intuition, but I never curate Palazzo Strozzi’s Old Master exhibitions. Instead, I bring together the best people to make it possible,’ Galansino explains. ‘When I had the idea for Angelico, which will reunite his altarpieces that were dismantled in the 18th century, I called my old friend Carl Brandon Strehlke, the most renowned Angelico scholar in the world. Then I started discussions with San Marco [the Florentine Dominican convent where Angelico lived and worked] and the director of the regional museums, Stefano Casciu. I ask for loans and raise money, but I leave the scholars to do their job.’

Affording Galansino the freedom to make such bold programming choices is the foundation’s unique business model. At the time of its inception in 2006, it was the only independent private-public foundation in Italy. ‘We’re not owned by anybody, but we belong to everybody,’ says Galansino. ‘As a private institution, we are more free and flexible, and quicker than state-owned institutions. On the other hand, we have to fundraise constantly.’

In Italy, that’s hard, Galansino says: ‘It’s not like America, or even the UK, where there is a culture of philanthropy, so we’ve had to work to build a family of supporters, which includes individuals, local companies and international businesses.’

While private donations make up around 40 to 45 per cent of the budget, with another 10 per cent coming from public funds, nearly half is generated through ticket sales. ‘This is totally unprecedented in Italy,’ says Galansino. ‘We’ve changed the game not only in terms of the product, but also the structure we’ve created as an institution.’

Annual visitor numbers fluctuate between roughly 200,000 and 400,000. Abramović drew the largest crowd, followed by Eliasson and Koons. But knowing he can never compete with the nearby Uffizi and its several million visitors a year, Galansino instead emphasises the depth of his audience, which includes a large proportion of young people and Italians — the latter being especially important to him.

‘Many Italians avoid Florence because of the massive crowds,’ he says. ‘By putting on the sorts of contemporary art shows that they would usually travel to Berlin, London or Paris for, we’re giving them the opportunity to return. Today, non-Tuscan Italians make up around half of Palazzo Strozzi’s visitors. Before us, these people had less reason to come here.’

They bring other benefits for the city, too. ‘They’re cultivated, they shop local, and come out of season. In fact, Palazzo Strozzi isn’t even open in August, despite it being Florence’s busiest month. The crowds that come in the height of summer tend not to visit us anyway — ticket sales even drop off towards the end of July. Instead, we’ve invented a whole new category of visitor.’

In 2023 alone, it is estimated that Palazzo Strozzi’s visitors contributed more than €70 million to the local economy.

So far, Galansino has the foundation’s schedule mapped out until 2029. ‘I try to plan shows four or five years in advance,’ he explains.

Is there a thread that connects each show? ‘They are all the greatest artists of their time. Kiefer and Koons might not have a lot in common, but quality is the pole star I follow,’ he replies. And would the average Italian know who Tracey Emin is? ‘Probably not. Generally speaking, unlike the UK or USA, Italians are more versed in Old Masters than contemporary art — but our visitors are interested in opening their minds.’

Tracey Emin. Sex and Solitude opens at Palazzo Strozzi on 16 March 2025 and runs until 20 July. Angelico opens on 26 September