
Catterina Seia
Co-Founder and Vice-President of Fondazione Fitzcarraldo; Vice- President of Fondazione Medicina a Misura di Donna; President and Associate Founder of CCW-Cultural Welfare Center.
Full biography
- Co-Founder and Vice President of Fondazione Fitzcarraldo since 2013, a leading research body guiding the cultural policies of public entities, private bodies ( corporate philanthropy in particular) and public authorities, she promotes and supports the cross-sectoral innovation processes of culture and through culture, as well as the impact of civic, social and economic innovation, and the empowerment of people and communities.
- She has been Vice President of Fondazione Medicina a Misura di Donna since 2009, a foundation for medicine tailored to women that promotes gender-specific health, which she created together with ten other women from various backgrounds with complementary knowledge, based in the Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics 1 of the Sant’Anna Hospital in Turin.
- She set up and has been managing the Institution's first interdisciplinary platform for research-action on the alliance between “Art, health and social change” since 2011, in which more than ninety cultural and cognitive establishments share their skills, studies and research with other fields, namely those of medicine, human and social sciences.
Numerous pilot projects have been carried out and applied to many settings, leading to profound changes. This platform is seen as a role model for the commitment to building a valuable relationship between cultural participation, the humanisation of healthcare settings, and well-being of people and organisations, based on the growing clinical and scientific evidence – consolidated but not widely known – that proves it.
- On 8 March 2020, the first day of the first lockdown in Italy, in response to the pandemic, she founded, with other cross-over pioneers, the first cultural welfare research centre in Italy. CCW-Cultural Welfare Center deals with advocacy, assists decision-makers in policy development, and supports research and capacity building with a school – CCW School – that builds hybrid skills between health, the social sphere, education and culture.
- She encourages dissemination and discussion in particular through the editing of publishing projects. From 2011 to 2019, after overseeing research reports, she was editor of the “Giornale delle Fondazioni”. She is the scientific lead of “Arte e Impresa” – the newspaper of the “Giornale dell’Arte” – and of the monthly publication of studies “Letture Lente” by AgCult.
- She arrived on the social innovation scene by vocation, by reading the effects of the financial crisis of 2009, bringing her personal experience and networks acquired through senior positions held in human resources management, communication and cultural investments of international companies.