The Palazzina dei Giardini Foundation is a center for cultural production and professional training aimed at spreading contemporary art and visual culture, and positioning itself as a reference point in the interaction between different artistic disciplines and languages, and in the dialogue between arts, science, and technologies.

Thanks to the multiplicity of venues it manages and by collecting the legacy of the three institutions that have merged into it - Galleria Civica di Modena, Fondazione Fotografia di Modena, Museo della Figurina - the Palazzina dei Giardini Foundation presents itself as a cultural district that offers and organizes exhibitions and high-level training courses, workshops, performances, and conferences, enhancing its heritage and building a network system at a local and extraterritorial level aimed at enriching the community in which it operates. Commissioned in the 17th century by Francesco I d'Este as a casino - a place of entertainment for the Este court - within the gardens of the Ducal Palace, the construction of the Palazzina is attributed to the architect Vigarani. Together with the park, it was donated a century later by the Duke to the citizenship; over the years it fell into disuse, until it became a greenhouse and a tool shed in the 20th century. Towards the end of the seventies, as part of a redevelopment plan of the historic center promoted by the Municipal Administration, the Palazzina was restored and brought back to its original scenic function. A subsequent and recent conservative restoration has further enhanced the extraordinary quality of the spaces, the large windows, the spacious wall surfaces, and the heights, making the Palazzina an optimal place for internationally renowned exhibitions.