After Pier Paolo Pasolini’s death, the Municipality of Casarsa and the Mayor of the time, Gioacchino Francescutto, took action to promote and recall the figure of the poet who tragically disappeared, involving the most influential exponents of the Italian cultural world. On 10 November 1975, after the Friulian celebration of Pier Paolo’s funeral in Casarsa, the Mayor called for an extraordinary and informal meeting of the City Council «to remember Pier Paolo Pasolini, a fellow citizen and a poet». During the Council, the members worked on what now are the basis of the Study Centre. The Board undertook to realize a plan of initiatives to remember the work and the figure of the poet such as the creation of a «National Literal Award named after Pier Paolo Pasolini» and the «reintroduction of the Academiuta di lenga furlana in order to collect his friulian literary production (published and non- published) and to value and maintain the linguistic heritage of Casarsa».
On that occasion it was also created a special Committee with the aim of promoting and realizing the mentioned initiatives. Some important experts were invited to take part to it: Giulio Enaudi, the editor and president of the Department of Foreign Languages at the University of Verona; Luciano Erba; Angelo Romanò; father David Maria Turoldo; the painter Giuseppe Zigaina and the poet Andrea Zanzotto. They met for the first time on 17 January 1976 and the main purpose on their agenda was «the discussion around three fundamental items»: the collection, cataloguing and preservation of Pasolini’s literary and cinematographic heritage; the creation of a Cultural Association through the reintroduction of the Academiuta di lenga furlana (the poet was one of its founder); and the realization of the work program «a Casarsa, nella terra cioè alla quale Pasolini era legato da genuine e mai sopite ricordanze e ove è ritornato dopo la morte» (quot.).
After a long time full of productive purposes and enthusiasm, in 1993 the Provincial Administration of Pordenone bought Casa Colùs (the house of Pasolini’s mother). In the following year, a collaboration agreement was signed with the City of Casarsa for the construction of the Study Centre- Pier Paolo Pasolini Archive.
The opening occurred in April 1995 and paintings, manuscripts, books, movies (VHS) and documents were placed in the Study Center. According to the Board, «the Study Center can and will become a place where the huge documentation about Pasolini is collected, where people can meet, study and take part to cultural initiatives which are linked to the figure of the poet and are able to give voice to his will of strictness, protest, ethical and cultural provocation even in our time». In the same year the Provincial Board started a planning program of maintenance work that ended in 1999 with the restoration of the main building of Casa Colùs. The Centre was soon opened to the public and today offers the possibility to visit a permanent exhibition placed in the rooms of the house. Here there are manuscripts, paintings, and an extended bibliographic, photographic and multimedia heritage with a particular reference to the period in which the poet wrote his poems in Casarsa and Friuli. On 26 June 2006, the Board of Directors of the Study Center Pier Paolo Pasolini nominated Fernando Bandini as president and Gian Mario Villalta as artistic director. The writer from Pordenone will coordinate the cultural policy of the Center together with the Board of Directors and the Scientific Committee comprising Luciano De Giusti, cinematographic expert who is also a member and partner of Cinemazero, Rienzo Pellegrini, professor at the University of Trieste, Caterina Furlan, headmaster of the liberal –arts department of Udine and Pier Giorgio Sclippa, director of the Friulian Philological Society. The members of the association are now engaged in the planning of various activities, with a particular focus on the valorization and preservation of all the manuscripts placed in the Study Centre, on the restyling of the house and on the organization of various measures to be held in Casarsa and in the Region. On 26 January 2009, the Board of Directors nominated Piera Rizzolatti as President of the Study Center. On 16 June 2009, the professor Angela Felice is nominated its director.