Collaborating with AGIS to Support Performing Arts Businesses

• In collaboration with AGIS, we’re announcing the six theater and dance companies that received financial support from the #SocialLive project.
• On March 1, we’re holding an event “SociaLive: Meta and Agis’ commitment to the world of performing arts” to present the winners.
• This marks the end of the journey started by Meta and AGIS in the spring of 2021 to support, through digital training programmes and concrete contributions, the most fragile realities of the sector affected by the pandemic.

In collaboration with AGIS, the Italian General Association of Performing Arts, we’re announcing the winners of the #SociaLive project, launched to promote and support, with an economic contribution, small and medium-sized performing arts companies affected by the pandemic. ARB Dance Company, Clan degli attori, Nuovo Teatro Sanità, Officine della Cultura, Stivalaccio Teatro and Teatro Koreja are the six companies that have distinguished themselves in the fields of classical and contemporary theater and dance, winning a place on the playbill and a 6,000-euro economic support grant, which will be awarded by Meta in the next few weeks in order to support their digitalisation. The six companies also had the opportunity to use the AGIS patronage in the communication of the show.

The pandemic has indeed severely affected the entire cultural sector: according to AGIS data,, due to the extended suspension of live shows, theater, music and dance recorded a 76.7% drop in revenues in 2020, with a loss of 583 million euros compared to the previous year.

The winners of the contest were selected by a jury of experts chaired by journalist and film critic Piera Detassis and composed of director and screenwriter Giuseppe Gagliardi and musicologist Carla Moreni. More than 80 small and medium-sized companies took part in the initiative dedicated to the most fragile realities of the performing arts, including theaters and concert halls with a maximum capacity of 500 people, artistic residences, dance and theater companies considered to be cultural centers of artistic production of reference in the area where they operate.

The #SociaLive project, the results obtained until now from the initiative and the possible scenarios that will involve the sector will be at the center of the “SociaLive: Meta and Agis’ commitment to the world of performing arts” event organized on March 1st.  The event will include speeches by Flavio Arzarello, Public Policy Manager, Italy from Meta, Carlo Fontana, President of Agis and Piera Detassis, President of the contest jury. During the meeting, the operators of the performing arts sector who won the contest will share their experience telling how, thanks to the economic support for digitalisation, they have implemented digital tools creating and monetising online events.

#SociaLive seals our wider collaboration with AGIS, started in 2021 to support the digitalisation and the recovery of the performing art sector and developed through the “Facebook Culture Open Days”, a series of free webinars with live-chat with experts, created to help businesses take all the opportunities offered by digital.  A section dedicated to culture in the online hub for SMBs #piccolegrandimprese, with training materials and on-demand video training, was also provided to these businesses.

“Aware that culture and entertainment play a central role in people’s well-being, and represent an important factor for social cohesion and inclusion, last year we started a collaboration with AGIS to support the realities of this sector, which were experiencing a dramatic moment due to the pandemic, by helping them to seize the opportunities offered by digital. The #SociaLive initiative is the last piece, in chronological order, of a more articulated project that has allowed us to support more than 1,700 operators of the sector through training activities, consultancy and free digital tools to manage paid events online”.

– Angelo Mazzetti, Head of Policy of Meta for Italy, Greece, Malta and Cyprus.

“This praiseworthy initiative shows how the entertainment sector, which has been hit like few others by the effects of the pandemic, can prove to be extremely vital and reactive, despite the difficulties of the moment”.

– Carlo Fontana, President of AGIS

“It was an extremely positive experience. We have had the opportunity to exchange views and get to know small and medium-sized companies able to express their artistic talent with great professionalism and, above all, a spirit of innovation”.

– Piera Detassis, President of the contest jury

Watch the full event.