COMMUNICATING THROUGH CULTURE: PUBLIC CULTURAL EVENTS AS A PUBLIC-RELATIONS STRATEGY AT CA’ FOSCARI UNIVERSITY OF VENICE

Abstract

This article examines how a university embedded in a culturally saturated, tourism-dominated city uses public cultural events as a core instrument of its public-relations strategy. Taking Ca’ Foscari University of Venice as a single qualitative case, it analyses three recurring flagship events — the international literary festival Incroci di Civiltà, the Ca’ Foscari Short Film Festival, and Art Night Venezia — drawing on a research visit conducted in October–November 2025, an analysis of institutional communication materials, and key-informant interviews with the events’ directors. The study argues that these events function as durable “anchors” of public visibility through which the university articulates a coherent yet deliberately differentiated institutional identity and addresses distinct publics: an international intellectual audience, a global community of young filmmakers, and the civic public of Venice. Across all three, public-relations objectives converge with the university’s “third mission”, as each event simultaneously builds reputation and relationships and enacts cultural and civic engagement. Against the backdrop of overtourism, the events allow the university to compete for scarce public attention while asserting its legitimacy as a living civic actor co-producing, with the city, a shared narrative of Venice as a contemporary capital of culture. The article contributes to the literature on higher-education communication and the third mission of universities.