Communicating Art Today: Mara and Teresa Sartore for Il Giornale dell’Arte

M&TS – For us, communicating culture means getting deeply involved in a project. Lightbox was not created as a traditional press office, but as a consultancy and communications agency specialising in contemporary art. We often work from the moment a project is conceived, long before it becomes “news.”
Circuito Off – Venice International Short Film Festival, one of Lightbox’s earliest projects, was a defining experience in shaping this approach. Over fourteen years, the festival grew through the interplay of artistic direction, visual identity, press, partnerships and audience development. It showed how communication is not simply a way of telling the story of something that already exists, but can itself help create the conditions for a project to find its place, establish its identity and build meaningful relationships with its audiences.
This is especially important with emerging artists and projects. With an established name, there is already attention and reputation to manage. With an emerging artist, you have to help build them: recognise value before it is widely recognised, find the right angle and create the context for that artist to enter the conversation.
That is also what Lightbox means to us: to shed light. Not simply to amplify what is already in the spotlight, but to make something visible that is not yet there.
Working internationally has taught us that there is no universal formula. The same project can generate very different conversations in Venice, Paris, New York, Hong Kong or Dubai. Communication means understanding what makes a project relevant to a particular context – and why it should matter at that moment.
In a world where everyone is constantly communicating, our job is not necessarily to communicate more, but to understand what to communicate, to whom, how and why.

M&TS – The biggest change has been the move from predominantly vertical communication to a much more horizontal and fragmented ecosystem. But the deeper transformation concerns the role of communication itself.
It can no longer simply come at the end of a project, when everything is ready and needs to be “told”. It should be involved from the beginning: defining positioning, understanding audiences, choosing the right timing and context, and building relationships.
Our experience producing cultural projects has reinforced this view. Communication, content, production, partnerships and audiences are interconnected. Communication is not something added to a project; it is one of the ways through which that project enters the world.
Today, projects exist simultaneously across press, digital platforms, social media, newsletters, communities and partnerships, generating conversations that cannot be completely controlled. That makes early involvement even more important.
To communicate a project properly, you need to understand its intentions and complexities, as well as the cultural, social and political context in which it takes shape. That requires time, listening and genuine relationships.

M&TS – The projects we are most proud of are not necessarily those involving the biggest names or institutions, but those we helped build from scratch.
Circuito Off was the first. Launched in Venice when Lightbox was still in its early years, the independent international short-film festival grew over fourteen years into a leading reference point for short film in Italy, attracting artists, filmmakers, industry professionals and audiences from around the world.
Many years later, Vino Vero followed a similar path. When it opened in Venice, natural wine was still largely unfamiliar to the general public. From the outset, Vino Vero developed its own identity, language, community and reputation, eventually becoming internationally recognised in the natural wine world and, through the Vetrina project, establishing a presence at the intersection of wine and art.
These experiences taught us that communication is not simply about visibility. It is about building identity, community and lasting relationships.
That is probably the greatest satisfaction of our work: not simply communicating what is already visible, but shedding light on something that was not visible before.

M&TS – We find it difficult to identify a single recurring mistake. The Italian cultural communications sector is relatively small, with many highly professional and specialised people. At the same time, the space dedicated to culture in the media has decreased, particularly in print, while the number of projects competing for attention has grown.
If we had to identify a risk, it would be treating complex projects too superficially, especially by applying ready-made communication formulas. Every artist, institution and project has its own identity and does not necessarily need to be communicated everywhere, in the same way or to the same people.
More broadly, contemporary communication risks confusing visibility with attention. When space is increasingly limited, being selective, precise and well prepared matters more than ever.

M&TS – For us, the real measure is the audience’s response. That audience can be visitors, collectors, curators, the international press or a specific professional community. A campaign succeeds when it generates genuine attention among the people we want to reach.
But communication has limits. We have seen excellent projects, supported by strong press offices, fail to receive the response they deserved. Communication can create the best conditions for a project to be seen, but it cannot guarantee success.
Context matters enormously: timing, location, competing events and the audience’s willingness to pay attention.
The Venice Biennale is a perfect example. Countless high-quality projects compete for the attention of the same journalists, curators, collectors and visitors. Large budgets and extensive media exposure do not necessarily guarantee visibility, while smaller projects can emerge by finding the right moment, context and conversation.
Numbers matter, but they need to be interpreted. We look at press coverage, visitors, engagement and international reach, but ultimately we want to know whether we generated a meaningful response. That is why important communication decisions are often made long before the first press release is written.

M&TS – AI is an extraordinary tool, and we use it every day. It is particularly useful for tasks requiring speed and the processing of large amounts of information: research, summaries, translations, analysis, content adaptation and repetitive processes. Its role will undoubtedly grow.
What is much harder to replace is the human dimension of communication: relationships built over time, trust, mutual understanding, sensitivity and intuition.
A machine can analyse a journalist’s work and identify their interests, but knowing information about someone is not the same as knowing that person. It cannot replace years of experience, understanding how someone reacts, knowing when to insist and when to stop, or recognising something that has not been explicitly said.
The same applies to relationships with artists, curators, directors, collectors and institutions. Much of our work depends on trust, empathy and mutual responsibility.
Rather than asking which tasks will remain exclusively human, we are interested in the qualities we will need to cultivate as technology becomes more powerful: critical thinking, taste, imagination and, above all, the ability to build meaningful relationships.
Paradoxically, the more communication is mediated by technology, the more valuable human connection may become.

M&TS – We imagine a communications department that is even more transversal, with previously separate skills becoming increasingly integrated. AI will naturally be part of everyday work, alongside photography, video, audio and digital content production.
Social media will remain important, but the platforms themselves will change. Instagram, which has been central to art communication for years, could become obsolete or take on a completely different role. The essential skill will therefore not be mastering one platform, but understanding how languages, behaviours and patterns of content consumption evolve.
We also expect a shift towards audiovisual and oral formats: video, podcasts, conversations and interviews will become increasingly important, not only for promotion but also for the circulation of critical thinking about art.
At the same time, personal relationships will become even more valuable. Long-term trust with journalists, artists, curators, directors, collectors and institutions, together with an international network and direct knowledge of different cultural contexts, will remain fundamental.
The professionals of the future will need strong technical skills and the ability to use AI, but also a deep understanding of art, an international perspective and excellent relational skills. The tools will change quickly; the real skill will be adapting without losing the ability to understand people, contexts and what genuinely deserves attention.

M&TS – Don’t start with “How do I communicate this?”but with “Why should anyone care?”. It may sound brutal, but it is a form of respect both for the project and for the people you want to reach.
One of the most important skills in our profession is finding the angle that reveals what is genuinely interesting about an artist, exhibition, project or story – and makes the right audience want to pay attention.
To do that, you need a deep understanding of the field: contemporary art and its history, but also its dynamics, protagonists and conversations. Only then can you recognise what might generate interest and identify the right interlocutors.
Our editorial experience with My Art Guides has been fundamental. It requires us to observe the art world from another perspective, constantly selecting, comparing and understanding what can become a story. Being both communicators and content editors has given us a much more conscious understanding of both sides.
And if we had to add one simpler rule: be professional. For us, that means knowledge, accuracy and punctuality. The tools keep changing; these qualities still make the difference.
In an increasingly saturated media landscape, one thing remains true: it is not necessarily the person who speaks the loudest who gets heard. You need something interesting to say, and you need to know why, at that particular moment, someone should want to listen.