The value of museum communication: the cases of the Paper and Watermark Museum in Fabriano and the Ascoli Piceno Papal Paper Mill Museum in Ascoli Piceno

Guaranteeing the survival of cultural heritage, increasing its accessibility, both physical and intellectual, and the creation of countless benefits for different categories of stakeholders depends both on a perfect comprehension of the interests and abilities of users to take advantage of what is offered and, above all, on identifying and analysing the various types of value that can be attributed to it. According to Montella, there are three types of value that may be analysed for this purpose: a presentation value, informative in nature and inherent in the historical, cultural and possibly artistic value implicit in the heritage; a landscape value, extended to the context, inherent in the factual information services aimed at supporting policies of preventive and programmed conservation: and a production value, commercial in nature, which concerns the external effects generated by cultural heritage management to qualify the products and the images themselves of the businesses in order to make them stand out from the competition. The aim of this article is to inquire into whether, in what way and to what extent the communication of the Paper and Watermark Museum in Faabriano and the Ascoli Piceno Papal Paper Mill Museum in Ascoli Piceno creates presentation value and therefore leads the public to understand how far paper production has influenced the economic and socio-cultural history of the area in which they are located.