Italian culture in the U.S. has a new online platform: the website www.italyinus.org, the cultural portal of Italy’s diplomatic network in the United States. Simple to use and with all the information you need, the new site is your guide to the hundreds of cultural events organized or supported by the Italian Embassy in Washington, Italy’s Consulates and by the Italian Institutes of Culture in the United States.
With its own hashtag Twitter #ITcultureUS, the platform also includes Facebook, building on last year’s 2013 – Year of Italian Culture in the United States page.
The initiative was inspired by the experience of the Year of Culture: a kaleidoscope of over 300 prestigious events organized from coast to coast in 2013, which generated great interest from the public and press in both the U.S. and Italy. The logo of “Italy in US” – an American flag and an Italian flag joined together – closely resembles the logo of the Year, proof that the initiative was not a short-lived celebration, but a carefully planned and permanent foundation from which to re-launch the promotion of our culture in the U.S. and to raise awareness overseas of the best of Italy’s past, present, and future. Its extraordinary cultural heritage but also its continuing ability to inspire.
“What has guided us — commented the Ambassador of Italy in Washington, Claudio Bisogniero — is, on the one hand, the desire to facilitate access to information regarding our cultural initiatives to all those who are interested, and, on the other hand, to bring together a team. Especially when it comes to cultural cooperation, we must involve the largest possible number of institutional and non-institutional actors, mobilizing resources, generating and circulating ideas and projects. To make this happen, you can’t do without a unique showcase, like the new site, and a virtual hub where maximum use is made, as we are now doing, of social media tools. This was one of the main lessons of the Year of Culture.”