Call for Applications: Vittoria Castagna Award 2024

This award is aimed at trainees who wish to work in the field of cultural production, with a particular focus on marketing and communication aspects. Over the years, culture has played an increasingly central role in the positioning and communication strategies of companies and institutions, and this professional is the one who is able to grasp the needs of companies and translate them into cultural communication projects that allow the growth of the arts sector, support new productions and give new life to cultural production.

The Vittoria Castagna Prize 2024, promoted and supported by Cortona on the Move in its second edition, has the same objective: to make the desire to understand, to learn, to highlight the value of culture and to place it at the heart of the education of the prizewinners, year after year. Culture beats time, it is always new. This is what Vittoria Castagna taught them, and what she pursued in her intense professional, family and friendship life. And they will carry it forward in the prize dedicated to her, for a corporate communication in line with the history of Cortona on The Move.

The marketing and communication manager in the cultural sector is a professional with a wide range of competences and skills, able to combine artistic and humanistic knowledge with technical, managerial and relational skills, able to interact with the communication team as well as with the production team, and able to deal with different professional figures or business and institutional realities.

The cultural marketing and communication manager knows how to interact both internally within the cultural organisation and externally with partners and stakeholders, using the appropriate register for each context. He/she knows how to draft presentation documents and proposals in the right language for each interlocutor, conveying potentials and opportunities, of which the interlocutor can grasp the strategic and communicative value.

The marketing and communication manager in the cultural sector has traditional and innovative communication and marketing skills, as well as knowledge of funding opportunities for cultural activities (tenders, fundraising, etc.) and human resources coordination and management skills.

Prize Information

• The winning candidate will receive:
  • A cash prize of €5,000
  • The possibility of being hosted during the opening days of the Festival, from 11 to 14 July 2024, with the possibility of being included in the Cortona On The Move team for a curricular internship (starting in November 2024), in the case of candidates in training, to develop and implement the project idea. For candidates who have already completed their studies, an internship will be considered (relocation to Cortona is not required.)
• The prize money is intended to contribute to the conception and possible realisation of the project by working with the Cortona team, including
  • Working with the festival management to implement the project idea and assisting the festival communication management in developing the communication plan to support the project;
  • Working closely with the Festival Partner Manager to get to know the organisation’s partners, including cultural institutions, sponsors and funders, and the relationships established with them

What is required of the participants?

• Candidates will be asked to submit an idea for a communication project aimed at developing relationships and projects with the corporate world in order to ensure the sustainability of the Cortona On The Move Festival over time.
• In particular, they are looking for a project that offers companies the unique opportunity to tell unpublished stories that communicate their values and socially relevant activities through a visual language, taking advantage of the Festival’s consolidated network of national and international partnerships that can guarantee the collaboration of the best professionals in the field. The final result of the project could be the production of exhibitions, installations, photo books and communication campaigns. The exhibition of the project will take place within the framework of Cortona On The Move and will be disseminated through the activated media and communication channels.
• The proposed project idea must be accompanied by a study of the context in which it is conceived, the tools needed to carry it out, the investment required for its realisation and a description of the expected results.
• The project must be submitted in accordance with the procedures described in the relevant section of this call for proposals.

Eligibility Criteria

• Applicants for the award should meet the following requirements:
  • Current or completed education in the field of cultural heritage, economics, communications, social sciences, management, engineering or equivalent work experience in the cultural sector.
  • Knowledge of the local, national and international cultural scene.
  • Organisational and time management skills.
  • Communication and interpersonal skills.
  • Ability to work independently and as part of a team.
  • Knowledge of communication tools.

For more information, visit Cortona On The Move.