Cristiana Perrella's Dismissal from Museo Pecci Sparks Debate

Cristiana Perrella, director of the Centro per l'arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci in Prato, was abruptly dismissed by president Lorenzo Bini Smaghi during a contemporary art week that highlighted Florence. The non-consensual separation occurred after a year and a half of museum hardship, following a strategic alliance between Prato and Florence that included a successful Francesco Vezzoli exhibition in Piazza Signoria and Palazzo Vecchio. Perrella, who began her career at the Pecci in 1991 as a curator course participant, was seen as a product of the museum's training program. She brought a female sensibility to a paternalistic structure and shifted programming toward local community and contemporary issues, avoiding blockbuster models. She leaves a strong curatorial team. Bini Smaghi, former president of Fondazione Strozzi, demands more managerial skills from curators and resource generation, a request that seems ironic given his own network. The article, by Sergio Risaliti, argues that museum directors should optimize investments for local benefit and international visibility without relying on blockbusters, and that pure managerialism is misguided.