Abstract
The juridical-organizational structure of foundations - alternative to pre-existing settings in the management of arts and culture and aimed at bringing innovation and increasing efficiency - is still a rather limited phenomenon in Italy, though rapidly developing. The variety of foundations operating in the cultural sector is even more diversified and deserves some distinctions. For instance, there are the bank foundations which - among their activities - support also the cultural field; lyrical companies transformed by law into foundations; "participatory foundations", innovative and hybrid juridical institutes which are gathering consensus and thus are widely implemented in the cultural sector. This paper analyses the peculiarities of foundations - with particular reference to the participatory ones, in terms of organizational structure and governance - in order to assess its potential adequacy to the complexity of the cultural industry. The paper aims at contributing to the debate on whether, among the possible models of management of arts and culture, the foundation can be considered the most appropriate. The discussion moves from the consideration that a foundation has a typical non-profit structure where a co-operation between Public and Private gives the chance to guarantee public interest on the one side and managerial skills on the other.