Engaging Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as Partners of Art Institutions: Benefits, Motivations, and Models of Collaboration. The Case of SMAC Venice (SMAC San Marco Art Centre)

Over the past decades, funding and partnership models in contemporary art institutions have undergone structural transformation. As public support has declined and competition for private sponsorship intensified, newly established and independent art institutions face a strategic challenge: securing financial sustainability while maintaining curatorial autonomy. Dominant partnership frameworks, developed in contexts shaped by large corporate sponsorship, do not fully account for institutional environments characterised by resource scarcity, organisational emergence, and SME-dominated local economies. This thesis examines partnerships between art institutions and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as a distinct organisational form rather than as scaled-down corporate sponsorship. It asks under which organisational conditions such partnerships become attractive to SMEs and how their value configurations, relational dynamics, and institutional tensions unfold in practice. The empirical analysis centres on SMAC Venice (San Marco Art Centre), an independent exhibition-led institution operating without an endowment or guaranteed public funding. Using a qualitative case study approach, the research combines semi-structured interviews, analysis of internal organisational materials, participant observation, and a structured reference case. The study identifies five dimensions of value perceived by SMEs — symbolic, relational, functional, infrastructural, and political — and demonstrates that financial scale and relational intensity do not correlate in this context. The findings reveal a structural paradox: the relational qualities that make SME partnerships meaningful and attractive are precisely those that resist organisational scaling. These collaborations require sustained relational labour and careful institutional design. Their primary outcome lies not in revenue maximisation but in the construction of relational infrastructure — accumulated trust networks, peer-group cohesion, local legitimacy, and institutional embeddedness. The thesis argues that SME partnerships demand conceptual recalibration within cultural partnership research. Evaluating them solely through financial magnitude or visibility metrics risks overlooking their contribution to institutional resilience. Understanding their viability requires attention to organisational form, territorial context, and the capacity to sustain relational intensity over time.