Banca di Bologna is fully immersed and engaged in this vibrant setting. The bank has built a reputation for important initiatives aimed at protecting and restoring celebrated landmarks such as the city gates, the Oratorio dei Fiorentini, Piazza Galvani and Piazza Minghetti, the Palazzo delle Poste (now Palazzo De’ Toschi), and the Basilica of San Petronio.

Banca di Bologna also supports the activities of Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Fondazione Lucio Dalla, Fondazione Golinelli, and many other cultural institutions throughout the province, including the Accademia di Belle Arti.
One noteworthy part of this ongoing effort is the bank’s partnership with Arte Fiera and Art City—two examples of the major role that contemporary art, too, plays in the life of Bologna. The former is one of the most important art fairs in Italy, and the latter is a festival held throughout town on its opening weekend, with a program of exhibitions and events for the general public that draw everyone from art enthusiasts, to tourists, to average residents, especially young people and students.

Banca di Bologna’s involvement with Art City, in collaboration with Arte Fiera and MamBo, has led it to begin organizing exhibitions of international scope in the Banca di Bologna hall at Palazzo De’ Toschi: the group exhibition La Camera (2016), and solo shows by Peter Buggenhout (2017), Erin Shirreff (2018) and Geert Goiris (2019). Parallel to this, for the last two years it has been showcasing young Italian artists at its nearby headquarters in Piazza Galvani: Elia Cantori in 2018 and Matteo Fato in 2019.

The popularity of these exhibitions and widespread praise for their high quality have inspired the creation of Banca di Bologna Contemporary: a project that embodies the bank’s active support for contemporary art, and which now also has a home online at contemporary.bancadibologna.it.