Strategic or struggling? Exploring Sustainability in cultural organisations. Italian and international perspectives

The debates on the management of public and non profit organisations are still tackling the unanswered issues of sustainability. In the cultural organisations in particular, the theme has greater relevance, where creating value for society should be ensure although the scarcity of financial resources and government cut-backs. Indeed being sustainable is not the mission of cultural organizations, whereas it is a precondition for ensuring enhancement of cultural heritage in an unstable economic environment. This research contributes to the ongoing debate over sustainability in the arts and cultural sectors, through a qualitative inductive approach of multiple case studies. Four areas has been took into consideration, as representative of different perspective of how sustainability has been strategized and included in the reform of the public sector. The results indicate that in order to be sustainable, arts organisations, seek autonomous and different ways to handle the issue. This includes strategize actions, restructure their internal organisation, attract philanthropic support, encourage sustainable management practice and, generally, diversify their funding.