From strategies to results. Assessing the role of contemporary art for tourism development in Turin
Abstract
The paper examines how contemporary art is integrated into urban tourism strategies, through the case study of Turin, Italy, between 2000 and 2024. It analyses the consistency between strategic goals, policy implementation and results across three municipal strategic plans. The study adopts a mixed-method approach combining document analysis, semi-structured interviews and quantitative data on municipal allocations, museum attendance and tourism flows. Findings show that Turin developed a diversified system of contemporary art policies and actors, distinct from flagship-museum models. However, the tourism rationale used to legitimize these investments was never substantiated by adequate monitoring. As evidence of weak tourism returns accumulated, municipal allocations collapsed and coordination capacity eroded. Connecting to established debates on the instrumentalization of cultural policy and urban governance, the paper argues that justifying arts investment through external policy agendas generates expectations that cannot be met, deepening vulnerability to disinvestment and undermining the coordinative capacity on which collective action among diverse urban actors depends. It concludes by advocating for an ecological approach to cultural ecosystems as an alternative policy framework.