Vittoria Castagna Award

Vittoria Castagna’s story is a succession of doors opening onto the universe of knowledge. An expert in corporate communication, she continuously and with determination and enthusiasm enriched her education — always one step ahead of the here and now that her professional expertise demanded. First came her classical high school diploma in Lecco, her hometown, then a degree in Political Science and a diploma from the Accademia di Comunicazione in Milan.

After graduating, Milan became her adopted city, where she built a career in communication and PR — working at leading agencies she went on to direct, as well as in independent practice. The field of PR, whose acronym stands for Public Relations, contains an essential driving force that Vittoria nurtured both in her work and in life: a commitment to relationships. Certainly between companies and their audiences, but above all the human connections that spark, in turn, the fundamental relationship between different disciplines of knowledge — from the humanities to the sciences, from the arts to culture, without neglecting anthropology, ethnography, and the study and discovery of worlds near and far. Very far, in fact: Vittoria followed with infectious enthusiasm the Rosetta space mission, which in 2014 transmitted hundreds of images from the comet targeted by the probe launched by the European Space Agency. And so it was — observing and studying earthly things and stars alike: a fascination with the unknown that inspires us to adopt new lenses, broaden our gaze, and add to our knowledge. This is the ongoing lesson that Vittoria shared across so many years of work. Passion and feeling, intuition and rigor, analysis and synthesis, immersion and resurfacing — these are the qualities that distinguished every cultural and communication project she developed for her clients.

For Cortona On The Move, Vittoria left a lasting mark, contributing to the programming of the festival, its exhibitions, and its special events. Two stand out as particularly exemplary and extraordinary. The first took shape during the two years of the pandemic: Covid-19 Visual Project. A Time of Distance, for which photographers from around the world were invited to document that truly unique moment in history. Today, the project lives on in a book published by SKIRA, conceived and produced by Cortona On The Move in partnership with Intesa Sanpaolo. The result — created by the entire festival team under the curatorship of Arianna Rinaldo — was also brought together in a multidisciplinary online platform, covid19visualproject.org.

The second was the coordination of a project commissioned from Cortona On The Move by the Royal Commission for AlUla. The RCU of Saudi Arabia had identified the Cortona international visual arts festival as the cultural partner of reference for the inaugural edition of an event dedicated to photography in the artistic and cultural sphere. AlUla is an area of approximately 20 square kilometres — a historic oasis of art and creativity, an open-air museum, as demonstrated by the project “The Journey Through Time,” which Cortona On The Move expanded into “Through Images” to embrace the language of photography. The documentation of that first experience also offered a wide-open perspective shaped by culture, art, and visual expression: understanding through knowledge that travels across time and place.

The Vittoria Castagna Award, promoted and supported by Cortona On The Move, also sets itself this goal: to nurture the desire to understand, to learn, to underscore the value of culture and place it at the heart of the training of those who win the award, year after year. Culture outlasts time — it is the ever-present new. Vittoria Castagna taught us this, pursuing it through every thread of her rich professional, family, and personal life. And we will carry it forward into the award dedicated to her, in service of a form of corporate communication that is consistent with the story of Cortona On The Move.

Vittoria Castagna will thus serve as a mentor and source of inspiration for young people who wish to work in marketing and communication for cultural production. During the internship period, the winner will have the opportunity to work across several areas of communication, such as:

• Corporate PR: concerned with a company’s institutional image, its reputation and authority;
• International affairs: activities directed at international institutions and/or stakeholders;
• Public affairs: engagement with local and national public institutions, bodies, or entities;
• Crisis management: in response to both corporate and systemic crises;
• Marketing PR: an element of the marketing mix that, working in synergy with other communication tools, helps generate market interest in a new product, contributes to brand positioning, and supports co-marketing activities;
• Internal relations: activities directed at employees and collaborators, aimed at increasing motivation and engagement.

These same areas may also serve as the reference framework for the projects submitted in response to the call. Vittoria Castagna moved through all of them, sharing a great deal along the way — with empathy, expertise, and integrity.