Italy’s streaming platform for Italian culture becomes a reality.
Italy will launch ITsART – an ambitious streaming project known as the ‘Netflix of Italian Culture’ – on 31 May.
The online platform will access Italian culture – both free and paid – ranging from art and music to dance and theatre, commissioned by Italy’s culture ministry.
The project’s “virtual stage” will offer “Italian entertainment and culture, live, recorded, free and for a fee, in Italy and around the world,” stated culture minister Dario Franceschini on 27 May.
Offering live and on-demand content in Italy and abroad, the platform will have 700 programs available within the first few weeks of its launch.
Highlights will include Riccardo Muti’s concerts, orchestra rehearsals, and opera performances on the piano; Claudio Baglioni’s concert show In “Questa Storia Che è La Mia” at Rome’s opera house; and Giuseppe Verdi’s La Forza del Destino directed by Zubin Mehta at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.
The streaming platform, first announced during Italy’s covid-19 lockdown last spring, will feature content produced by the most important Italian cultural institutions, including archaeological sites, museums, academies, and theatres.
It will also offer “a wide range of films and documentaries, thanks to our collaboration with the leading film production companies,” reads the ITsART website.
ITsArt will be divided into three sections – stage, places, and stories – within which cultural venues will present their projects and productions, reports online art newspaper Artribune.
The platform will launch in Italy and the UK on 31 May before becoming accessible from other countries.
Spettacolo, il ministro @dariofrance: «Al via @itsart_it, dal 31 maggio la cultura sbarca online. Il 2 giugno in anteprima lo spettacolo di Baglioni al Teatro dell’Opera». https://t.co/GRFbsDyloJ #MiC #ITsART
— Ministero della cultura (@MiC_Italia) May 27, 2021