Abstract

This paper describes the introduction of the discipline of cultural economics in the curricula of Italian universities, and in particular in the Degree Course in Art, Music and Drama Studies – DAMS of Bologna, which was introduced in 1971, well ahead of other Italian universities. In the 1972/73 academic year, the DAMS put in place the course of «Organization and Economics of Performing Arts», when the economics of culture, of which the entertainment economics was a branch, had not yet been included in any academic program. At the time Lamberto Trezzini became full professor of the course (and held its chair for the following thirty years), and in 1986 he was one of the founders of the Cultural Economics Association which started this Journal in 1991. Here we describe the different stages through which the cultural and entertainment economics studies were developed by Bologna University, with special reference to the Department of the Arts, which now incorporates the DAMS, also with regards to the national framework of education.