Business Museums

by Marco Muggiano

Telling the story of a company and its evolution through the decades is equivalent to reliving a piece of history, looking at it from an original point of view. It is no coincidence that the museums and foundations desired and created by big industrial and commercial brands also become tourist landmarks. Discovering entrepreneurial experiences with an emphasis on education and entertainment. There are hundreds of business museums in Italy: here are a few tasters of brands gone global.

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Kartell Museum
www.archiviostoricobracco.com

Founded in 1999 to mark the company's 50th anniversary at the Kartell plant in Noviglio, just outside Milan. The building, designed by architects Anna Castelli Ferrieri and Ignazio Gardella, is considered one of the most interesting examples of industrial architecture in Lombardy.
Car accessories, household items, lamps, laboratory items, furniture, furnishings: the Kartell Museum's ever-growing collections consist of more than 8,000 objects, 5,000 drawings and 15,000 photographs. A precise picture of Kartell's evolving history, the plastic materials adopted, the production technologies, and the communication and distribution strategies employed throughout the company's seventy years in business.
In 2000, it was awarded the Guggenheim Enterprise & Culture Award as the best business museum.

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Galleria Campari
www.campari.com/it-it/galleria-campari

Interactive and multimedia, the Gallery is dedicated to the relationship between the Campari brand and its communication through art and design, its history and the evolution of the product and the world of bars. Opened in 2010 for the brand's 150th anniversary, the Gallery is located inside the Art Nouveau building that was Campari's first factory, built in 1904 by Davide Campari. Between 2007 and 2009, the industrial complex was transformed into the Campari Group's new headquarters and corporate museum, designed by architects Mario Botta and Giancarlo Marzorati. The Historical Archives comprise more than 3,500 works on paper, original Belle Époque posters, design items, manifestos and advertising graphics from the early 20th century to the 1990s, designed by important figures such as Dudovich, Nizzoli, Cappiello, Depero, and Munari. Cartoons and commercials by well-known directors such as Federico Fellini, Singh Tarsem, Paolo Sorrentino, Giovanni Sollima and Matteo Garrone.

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Bracco Historical Archive
www.archiviostoricobracco.com

In January 1998, at the initiative of Diana Bracco, President and CEO of the Group, the project for the creation of the Corporate Historical Archive to reconstruct the scientific research activities and history of the Pharmaceutical Company, which began in 1927, was launched.
In 2022 on the occasion of the Group's 95th anniversary, the Bracco Digital Historical Archive would be opened to the world with a multilingual website. A journey through time divided into 5 sections: Family, Company, Innovation, Sustainability and Culture. Packed with documents, unpublished photos, stories and podcasts that can also be listened to on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, IHearRadio, Google Podcasts and Amazon Music. More than ten thousand documents including social writings, press releases, publications, clinical trials, laboratory records and analyses, blueprints and patents, hundreds of videos, audio recordings, and more than five thousand photographs, bearing witness to nearly a century of the family's history.

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Ducati Museum
www.ducati.com/it/it/borgo-panigale-experience

A 90-year journey into the legendary motorcycle. Each motorcycle is a work of art, a story of shapes and colors, accentuated by installations to emphasize the brand's founding values of Style, Sophistication and Performance. Four exhibition pathways: Ducati moments (events, people and technological innovations that have punctuated the company's evolution), Origins, History of road motorcycles, History in competitions.
A parade of motorcycles to leave even the most uninformed breathless.

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Pirelli Foundation
www.fondazionepirelli.org

Founded in Milan in 1872, the Group is now among the world's leading tire manufacturers. The Foundation preserves documentation on the company to the present day: among the more than 3.5 kilometers of documents in the Historical Archives, the section devoted to communication plays a central role, bearing witness to the intense collaboration with intellectuals, designers, and photographers. Thousands of shots taken by masters such as Gabriele Basilico and Ugo Mulas; hundreds of sketches by designers such as Bruno Munari and Bob Noorda; art films and house-organs such as the Pirelli Magazine. The Foundation also maintains a technical-scientific library of more than 16,000 volumes.

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Lavazza Museum
www.lavazza.it/it/museo-lavazza

A sensory journey into the global coffee culture, intertwined with the history of a family business spanning four generations. The immersive and interactive experience is divided into five thematic areas: Casa Lavazza (the main stages of more than 120 years of the company's history), The Factory (coffee production and processing), The Piazza (celebration of the coffee ritual), The Atelier (with images and installations of 60 years of creative collaborations), and The Universe (an almost dreamlike space with a 360-degree multimedia projection). At the end of the tour you can taste the finest blends.