By Manuela Lozza
Milanese, manager for the most important Italian industrial companies, Salvatore Amura arrives in Como in 2009 accepting a challenge: to transform the ancient Larian academy of fine arts, now reduced to a residue linked to restoration, into a competitive and above all current institution. on the piece, inserting it into the fabric of the city, «something that it absolutely lacked», and making it a pivot for the birth of a great business / craftsmen / tourism axis.
You are not from Como and you do not come explicitly from the world of conservation of cultural heritage, how did you come to direct the Aldo Galli Academy?
"My interest in this sector began in 2003: the Cabassi group, for which I worked, had acquired the previous year the NABA (the New Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, born in the 80s under the pressure of some international artists) and he had called me to relaunch it. I was the right person because I have always been involved in innovation processes as well as marketing and communication (in Telecom, Canon, Mondadori). So in 2009, when the IED group proposed me to manage their Como office and the institutional relations of the entire group, I gladly accepted this challenge, even if there was a lot to do here, especially by expanding the study paths and coming to form truly sought-after figures in companies ".
Six courses of study are born, plus many projects developed in synergy with companies and the territory ...
«We are one of the first 10 centers in Italy to be able to confer a Master's Degree in Restoration and Conservation. We have 3 three-year degrees, all extremely innovative: the one in Fashion & Textile, which is the first to be explicitly conceived for this very specific aspect of the Larian territory, the one in Design and the one in Contemporary Arts, a topic rarely at the center of a course of study. so specific and at the same time articulated. We then have a two-year course in Visual Arts and our, for us very important, Master in Restoration of Contemporary and Design Objects, certainly rare and innovative. In each of these paths, we keep intact our vocation as a school / laboratory, in which 50% of the work is practical ».
This is only possible if the companies are also receptive: what is your relationship with them? And with the institutions?
"Since the beginning of this experience, I felt strongly supported, with great synergy and availability of all the entities with which we came into contact: we have gone through two councils and with both we have cultivated excellent relations, as well as with the former Province and with the Region. Our work / study on restoration has the curia as its first interlocutor (the Galli Academy has over the years restored splendor to the abbey of Sant Abbondio, to the city Cathedral, to the Oratory of Tremezzo, to the frescoes in the church of San Fedele. Ed.) and relations with the bishop have always been excellent, not to mention the link with the business world, where, thanks to Confindustria Como, we have been able to launch important and unique projects ».
Like the opening in September of the new FABLAB, the newly designed laboratory space ...
«It is one of our most innovative projects, certainly unique in Italy and very rare even at an international level. A permanent place, inside the university, therefore in a place already alive, where sophisticated machinery, such as plastic printers, have been installed. A common environment of research first and then of realization, in which to compare oneself and thus make one's ideas great and see them realized, a place of relationship that connects students, professionals, professors and companies, bringing the university world closer and closer to the world of work, starting from our great craftsmanship, but with a future-oriented look, investing in research and process innovation. Everything stems from the regional tender won by the Academy 2 and a half years ago, thanks to the Smart Digital Citizen project, to answer a question: ok, our cities have the ambition to be smart, but what are the citizens who will live there? How do they want to be represented and what do they need? The opening of the laboratory was possible thanks to the partnership with local companies and always moves in the same direction as all our projects: to achieve the goal of the school of know-how. There is no greater satisfaction than seeing former students inserted into the world of work, happy with their professional life precisely because they have been able to respond to the real and current demands of companies ».
He has cultivated good relationships to be someone who came to Como when he grew up ...
«I am from Milan and I carry all my Milanese spirit with me. Surely the goals I have achieved here at the Galli Academy also depend heavily on that great entrepreneurial and cultural openness that the Milanese capital has been able to give me since early childhood. But once here I chose to stay there, I chose Como to live there. It is a unique place, full of beauty, ideal for raising a family. Here I realized my life project, married Francesca and gave birth to Giorgio Giovanni and Michelangelo ».
