Arturo Galansino on Reimagining Florence and the Future of Palazzo Strozzi
- Andrew C.
- Nov 25, 2025
- 10 min read
Updated: Dec 28, 2025
Inside Palazzo Strozzi’s Renaissance Revival
In the great story of Florence, it would be easy for Palazzo Strozzi to remain a beautifully frozen monument: a perfect Renaissance palazzo, once home to one of the city’s most powerful families, framed by iron lanterns and pietra serena stone. Instead, over the last decade, it has become something far more dynamic, a laboratory where the language of our time is tested against six centuries of history.
At the center of this quiet revolution is Dr. Arturo Galansino, General Director of Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi. Formerly of the Louvre, the National Gallery in London, and the Royal Academy, he arrived in Florence ten years ago with what many considered an impossible mission: to make a city synonymous with the Renaissance a global stage for contemporary and modern art.
In this inaugural feature of The Inspire Conversations, we sat down with Dr. Arturo Galansino, General Director of Palazzo Strozzi, to explore the layered intersections of contemporary art, cultural storytelling, and Florence as both backdrop and protagonist. From reimagining the palazzo as a living forum to his personal connection with the Renaissance city, Galansino offers an insider's portrait of Florence not only as a living city, but a cultural state of mind.
From Paris and London to Florence:
Answering an Unexpected Call
When Galansino first received the headhunter’s call about Palazzo Strozzi, he did not imagine it would change his life.
“I was very happy in Paris and London,” he recalls. “I thought my entire career would stay outside Italy. Museums abroad felt more advanced; there were more opportunities for large projects.”
Florence, at that moment, did not yet present itself as a city of contemporary experimentation. Internationally, it was loved, almost exclusively, for its past.
“Florence was renowned for heritage and art history, but not as a place of innovation,” he says. “There was a huge gap between its reputation and its potential. I saw that immediately when I came for the interview. The city was missing a cultural program that spoke the language of our times.”
What convinced him was not only the building, but its promise. The palazzo, designed according to the golden ratio by Giuliano da Sangallo, felt to him like “a perfect showcase for human intelligence and creativity: grand, but still on a human scale.”
That human scale was the starting point for a new chapter. It suggested a palace that could become more than a container for masterpieces: a place where past and present could be put into active conversation, without one swallowing the other.
Re-authoring a Renaissance City
Taking on the directorship of Palazzo Strozzi meant more than programming a series of shows; it meant proposing a new role for Florence itself.
“People used to say contemporary art cannot work in Florence because we have the Renaissance,” Galansino smiles. “We decided to believe exactly the opposite. Contemporary art can work because we have the Renaissance. Our heritage is not a burden, it’s a pair of wings.”
From the outset, his strategy was clear: offer cultivated national and international visitors a real reason to return to Florence, outside the gravitational pull of mass tourism. The “excuse” would be ambitious, concept-driven exhibitions, often of contemporary and modern artists underrepresented in Italy, shown in dialogue with the city’s history.
“In Florence, our heritage is not a burden.
It’s a pair of wings.”
The response was immediate. Palazzo Strozzi broke attendance records for contemporary art in Italy. More importantly, it built a community: roughly half Italian but largely non-Tuscan, a quarter local, and 20–25% foreign, depending on the year. Around half of visitors are under 30, a striking statistic for a Renaissance city often perceived as “classical” rather than contemporary.
“These are not people passing through on a tour bus,” he explains. “They know why they are here. They don’t want the tourist traps. They want to rediscover Florence through culture.” This also meant defining what kind of institution Palazzo Strozzi wanted to be.
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