Giving a value to community mission and artistic brand: a new museum tale from the hill of Esquilino

We illustrate the case of Palazzo Merulana, a new museum in Rome located in the central district of Esquilino. The paper derives from an evaluation analysis carried out after one year from the museum opening, that tries to capture quantitative indicators and qualitative aspects in the multidimensional spaces of values and impacts pursued (environmental, cultural, social and community- based). Economic and financial values are also important, because the restructuration of the historical building was made under a Public-Private Partnership scheme and Palazzo Merulana is a private nonprofit institution that does not benefit of public subsidies. The case study seems interesting from several points of view: for the methodology utilized, for the results obtained, for the location in a city where cultural supply linked to heritage is huge and highly competitive, and finally for an evaluation exercise that refers to the start-up phase of a new museum.