Fundamental Tenets of the Foundation: The Valorization of Borsalino’s Cultural Heritage and the Development of Corporate Communication
The Birth of the Borsalino Foundation
The Borsalino Hat Museum
The Foundation's Relationship with the Company and its Management
The Foundation's Global Development: "its heart in the village and its eyes on the world"
G.D.L.: From the financial point of view, you are managing to involve the company. How about the surrounding territory? Could you talk about the local reaction towards the Foundation initiatives?
R.G.: Our cultural policy is oriented to the community. If there is no integration with the local territory, in terms of institutions, individuals and the broader public, the Foundation can't become a successful project. While it is necessary to widen the borders, our clear intention is to create a foundation with strong territorial links. Alessandria means Borsalino and Borsalino means Alessandria; at the same time, we would like to Borsalino to be recognized all over the world. This is our starting point and our philosophy of development.
G.D.L.: In a manner of speaking, the foundation has its eyes on the world, but its heart belongs to the village.
R.G.: Let's remember an essential feature of this company: Borsalino, unique in the world, is a medium size company but its brand earns at the level of a large one. Therefore, certain managerial models simply can't be applied to our situation where a garment or a hat is made to measure; standardized business models don't work for us. When you come to Borsalino you get the impression of a large company but you have to face managerial, commercial and marketing issues that are typical of a medium size company. Our marketing and public relations headquarters are in Milan, the only international city in Italy. Then, of course, we have to face everyday problems that other companies don't have.
G.D.L.: So, the foundation is an instrument to expand on this concept; that is, to have company employees as well as the local territory understand that the success of Borsalino also lies in internationalization and that local work culture based on craftsmanship has to come to terms with global logic. The valorization of historical memory is essential to strengthening the stakeholders' perception of a cultural dimension, which shouldn't be seen as a superstructure but rather as a fundamental pillar of the territory's social capital.
R.G.: We started with a historical patrimony that belongs to Borsalino and that we are now in the process of retrieving. We are analyzing it and verifying what can be exported [for temporary exhibition] but the most important thing is that it is accessible to everybody. If I have an extremely valuable painting in my house and nobody ever sees it or knows about it, it isn't worth much. The first thing to do is to have everyone (the company, the territory and its institutions) grasp the importance of what we have.
E.M.: Moreover, the importance of the link with the territory is undeniable. In fact, the first section of the museum is about the territory where the Borsalino workshop was first established and its narrative starts from 1700. It is not a coincidence that Borsalino was set up here; there are facts that led to the creation of the company here and history has shown us how, from Alessandria, the adventure of the company has spread all over the world. Our perspective has two aspects: local, because the territory is inseparable from Borsalino, and international, with a global vision.
G.D.L.: A link that hasn't stopped with the company's past, but aims at being part of the present and useful for the future.
E.M.: I would like to stress that the existing museum project began as a museum of history: of the territory, of Borsalino, and of attire, but with an inevitable link to the present day. In fact the last part of the permanent exhibition displays a selection of contemporary hats and there is also a small section for temporary exhibitions. The museum should be a living organism that requires nourishment; it grows and generates thought, research and study. Besides, with 150 years of company history, the idea of "the hat" can be interpreted in a thousand different ways, so, given all these cultural links, an exhibition [of this kind] couldn't be held within a static organization. In the past two years, there have been temporary exhibitions, all agreed upon with the Municipality and financed equally by both institutions. In these cases, there was nothing that obliged Borsalino spa to contribute to the financing, but we wanted it like that because temporary exhibitions are an important tool for study, inquiry, and discovery. However, now that the development of similar initiatives must be totally agreed upon by both a public and a private institution, the process can be long and difficult. 
G.D.L.: The foundation's efforts on behalf of the museum's activities museum seem to aim at making the museum something more than an institution for merely preserving objects. Instead, the goal seems to be to create a permanent center of interpretation that will give back a valuable and strategic patrimony (whose development is both local and international) to the economy of the territory.
R.G.: We believe that culture can be imported and exported. While I can understand the needs of Alessandria Municipality to focus on local initiatives, at the same time, I want them to understand that if the foundation brings exhibitions that include an international perspective into the museum, Alessandria can start to go beyond its territorial borders. If it becomes possible for me to utilize the work I've already done and bring it to foreign institutions and museums, international associations, the foundation and the municipality will both benefit. For example, at the Borsalino Hat Museum, we organized the exhibition of hats that won the Hermés prize at the 7th International Hats'Art Competition - organized by the Atelier-Museé du Chapeau di Chazelles sur Lyon. They are amazing hats but this initiative shouldn't be shown only in Alessandria; it should be exported or else an international network should be created with the Museum of Chazelles sur Lyon or other institutions. If you limit yourself to your own province, you might be able to carry out your local objectives but you won't go beyond your perimeter even if you have an instrument that can launch you internationally and make you grow.
G.D.L.: How many visitors have been to the museum?
R.G.: In the first two years about seven thousand in all.
E.M.: More or less 3.500 per year: for Alessandria and for a museum that was open only on weekends, it is a fair number.
G.D.L.: Are you still open only on weekends?
E.M.: Yes, but we have added some midweek openings on request. The (local?) public administration is available to organize guided tours and host school trips. There are no limits in these terms, but this is a small effort. Within the association of business museums that we belong to, the Hat Museum has good numbers for its size and for the public it attracts. For example, in March 2008, we organized an exhibition, which was first seen within the Museum, called Perdere la testa. Il cappello tra moda e follia. (Losing your Mind : The Hat between Fashion and Madness). Promoted by the Borsalino Foundation and dedicated to the iconography of the hat and of fashion in the collection Arte Outsider of the Atelier di Pittura Adriano e Michele of the Hospital Fatebenefratelli in San Colombano al Lambro, the exhibition suggested an extremely transversal interpretation of the hat, which had less to do with Borsalino, but showed 'the hat' designed by these patients as a fashion accessory or as an element between ordinary daily life and that of high society, or as something that allows you to conform or stand out. Well, this peculiar exhibition, whose success was dubious, had extremely high numbers and was so successful that it was opened in Palermo and then Rome. Now we are scheduling it for Lecce and Milan and we have also been contacted by some foreign institutions to export it. This example really demonstrates what we would like to do: develop projects, and get involved in studies that, once realized along with the Municipality, will enrich not only the cultural heritage of Borsalino, but also the cultural standing of Alessandria.
G.D.L.: [Are you saying that] the foundation is an active agent of a cultural system that is integrated into the territory?
E.M.: Exactly. If we can offer both projects and flexibility, then, on the other side, public administration is an added value, being able to provide some types of resources that a private institution would find more difficult to guarantee.
G.D.L.: If I can ask a final question, what are the future plans of the foundation?
E.M.: We have a folder full of potential undertakings. Since our foundation is still small and relatively new, our plan is to invest in one big project per year, carried out by the Borsalino Foundation, that we believe will generate a meaningful return; we also aim to fund smaller initiatives in order to valorize our archives, increase knowledge of our history and give us a plus within the foundation and the company. We don't intend to invest in sponsors or activities that give us temporary visibility; these 'flash in the pan' events are easily forgotten, whereas for us, this is a long-term investment that we expect to bear fruit. Our desire is that everything we have done up to now will be collected and will bring concrete results; this idea has grown out of looking at the initiatives that Borsalino has taken over its long history, from a cultural and a social point of view. The company invested in extremely innovative projects: the first graphics contest for the production of an advertising poster in Italy was promoted by Borsalino and won by Marcello Dudovich; we have also worked in cooperation with outstanding graphic artists and designers; when Borsalino worked with an architect, the main interest was to create valuable, high quality, and beautiful buildings that can be found today in contemporary architecture books. Every activity has left its mark. That's why we hope our projects, even if smaller, will also make their mark.
G.D.L.: So, even in planning its projects, the foundation is inspired by Borsalino's long cultural tradition and commitment.
R.G.: Yes, we feel this is our duty towards a significant heritage. The founder of the company, Giuseppe Borsalino, was an extraordinary man, a true forerunner of many things: he was a industrialist who made the hat become a product of mass production [while maintaining high levels of craftsmanship], but he was also a benefactor and an adventurer. He was a person of consequence whose complex life has given much to the world. So from our point of view it's a duty and it would be a crime not to continue his cultural engagement.
G.D.L.: And this is a very important and admirable reason. Thank you.
