{"id":51378,"date":"2026-09-07T12:22:39","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T12:22:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fondazione-delbianco.org\/?p=51378"},"modified":"2026-10-01T07:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T07:25:09","slug":"florence-green-bay-heritage-relationships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fondazione-delbianco.org\/en\/florence-green-bay-heritage-relationships\/","title":{"rendered":"From Florence to Green Bay: Heritage Born from Relationships"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Cultural heritage is made up of monuments, works of art and objects, as well as the relationships built between people, institutions and territories<\/strong>, the knowledge they share, and the encounters that create lasting connections.<\/p>

This is the story told by some of the objects preserved at Palazzo Coppini<\/strong>, home of the Fondazione Romualdo Del Bianco \u2013 Life Beyond Tourism: tangible evidence of a relationship that began almost thirty years ago between Florence and the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay<\/strong> and developed through academic exchanges, meetings and cultural initiatives.<\/p>

It is a story that shows how heritage can create opportunities for mutual understanding and dialogue between cultures<\/strong>.<\/p>

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A Relationship That Began in Florence in 1996<\/h2>

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The origins of this relationship date back to 1996<\/strong>, during the international architecture seminars organized in Florence by the Foundation.<\/p>

Through the academic relationships developed during those years, also thanks to the collaboration with Professor Egon Krak<\/strong> in Slovakia, the Foundation came into contact with Sarah Meredith<\/strong>, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.<\/p>

That first encounter led to a collaboration that later also involved Ray Hutchison<\/strong>, Professor of Urban Studies, and gradually extended to other areas of the University.<\/p>

The exchanges also brought a delegation from the Foundation to Green Bay, giving continuity to a relationship built through education, mobility, academic exchange and personal connections<\/strong>.<\/p>

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Signs of a Friendship Between Florence and Green Bay<\/h2>

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Some moments in this story are now represented by objects preserved in the collections of Palazzo Coppini.<\/p>

In May 2007<\/strong>, the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay awarded Paolo Del Bianco<\/strong> an Honorary Degree in Human Studies. The academic gown and diploma he received on that occasion are now preserved in Florence.<\/p>

During the same visit, Mayor James J. Schmitt<\/strong> also presented Paolo Del Bianco with the keys to the City of Green Bay<\/strong>, further reflecting a relationship that began through university cooperation and gradually came to involve the city and its institutions.<\/p>

These different objects derive their value from the story of relationships and mutual recognition<\/strong> they preserve.<\/p>

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Sport as Part of a Community\u2019s Heritage<\/h2>

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Among the items from Green Bay preserved at Palazzo Coppini is an object from a world seemingly far removed from academia: an American football from the Green Bay Packers<\/strong>.<\/p>

Its presence tells another part of the American city\u2019s identity. Sport can be part of the social heritage of a territory: it creates a sense of belonging, generates shared memories and helps tell the story of a community to people from different cultural backgrounds.<\/p>

Within the Museum, an object like this therefore becomes an opportunity to discover a territory through the expressions that shape its life and identity<\/strong>.<\/p>

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Leonardo da Vinci: From Florence to Wisconsin<\/h2>

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The relationship between the two communities has also generated an exchange in the opposite direction.<\/p>

In 2014<\/strong>, the Foundation donated a bust of Leonardo da Vinci<\/strong> to the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, bringing to the American campus a symbol of Italian cultural history and its connection with Florence.<\/p>

The gesture carries a meaning that extends beyond the donation itself: heritage becomes a means through which geographically distant territories can share part of their identity and build new relationships<\/strong>.<\/p>

This is the same principle that has guided many of the Foundation\u2019s international initiatives over the years: bringing heritage into new contexts to create opportunities for encounter and mutual understanding.<\/p>

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Telling the Story of a Territory: The Spirit of Door County<\/em><\/span><\/h2>

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The relationship with Wisconsin is also represented in the Library of Palazzo Coppini through the photographic volume The Spirit of Door County<\/strong><\/em> by Darryl R. Beers, published in 1998.<\/p>

The book tells the story of Door County<\/strong>, an area of Wisconsin characterized by a strong relationship between landscape, community and local traditions.<\/p>

Its presence in the collection therefore has a particular significance: sharing a book dedicated to one\u2019s own territory offers others an opportunity to discover its places, identity and memory<\/strong>.<\/p>

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Objects That Tell the Story of Relationships<\/h2>

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An academic gown, a diploma, the keys to a city, a football, a book, a bust.<\/p>

Individually, they are very different objects. Brought together through the story that connects them, they tell the story of almost thirty years of encounters between Florence and Green Bay<\/strong>.<\/p>

This is the principle at the heart of the Museum of the Sacredness of Expressions of Gratitude<\/strong> at Palazzo Coppini: preserving objects together with the human and institutional relationships to which they bear witness.<\/p>

The collections thus become a map of encounters between cultures, people and territories<\/strong>, in which every gift preserves the memory of an exchange.<\/p>

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Heritage as a Means of Dialogue<\/h2>

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This story also offers a concrete example of the vision that guides the Fondazione Romualdo Del Bianco \u2013 Life Beyond Tourism<\/strong> today.<\/p>

Tangible and intangible heritage can become a space where people with different histories, experiences and identities come to know and understand one another.<\/p>

From Florence to Green Bay, and from Green Bay to Florence, the objects preserved and shared over the years tell a story that extends beyond academic collaboration.<\/p>

They show how a relationship can become heritage and how heritage, in turn, can generate new relationships<\/strong>. From this reciprocity, dialogue, cooperation and a culture of peace can grow.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Cultural heritage is made up of monuments, works of art and objects, as well as the relationships built between people, institutions and territories, the knowledge they share, and the encounters that create lasting connections. This is the story told by some of the objects preserved…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":51589,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5313],"tags":[5279,5311],"class_list":["post-51378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-museum","tag-life-beyond-tourism","tag-palazzo-coppini"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazione-delbianco.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazione-delbianco.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazione-delbianco.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazione-delbianco.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazione-delbianco.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51378"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazione-delbianco.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51469,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazione-delbianco.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51378\/revisions\/51469"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazione-delbianco.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazione-delbianco.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazione-delbianco.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazione-delbianco.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}