Inspirational Example of an Italian Social Enterprise
Multiplex Cinema“ Postmodernissimo”( http:// www. postmodernissimo. com / il-progetto /)
Anonima impresa sociale is a social enterprise founded in 2014 by four young people with the cultural aim to reopen an historical cinema in Perugia after it remained closed for 14 years. The citizens’ participation and involvement in this project transformed them from viewers to funders, and members of the social enterprise.
This cultural enterprising project was co-sponsored and supported by Perugia city council and the Postmodernissimo cinema cooperative. The cooperative who started up the cinema, invested 300.000 euros for the renovation of the original cinema and to buy new equipment. This financial investment drew on capital contributed from multiple sources; the shareholders, donations from citizens of Perugia and members of the cooperative, loans granted by Banca Etica, and a low-interest loan from the Umbria regional council.
The involvement of the citizens of Perugia was a strong contributor to the creation of the social enterprise. They promoted participation and engagement in different ways including the following examples:
1. the creation of a temporary office during the renovation period, where visitors could learn about the project and / or visit the construction site.
2. The creation of a crowdfunding campaign to finance the renovation of the cinema( more than 700 people supported this) so that Perugia’ s citizens could support the start-up phase with donations and thus become members of the Anonima Impresa Sociale social enterprise( which now has more than 50 members).
Currently, there are more than 5.000 people sharing the cultural project and giving a social and communitarian dimension to the Postmodernissimo cinema.
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