Contemporary art will be the great beneficiary this year of the 20 million euros of cultural co-capital that the Ministry of Miquel Iceta dedicates for the third consecutive time to Barcelona. The great nomadic biennial Manifesta, which after 14 editions throughout Europe will celebrate its fifteenth in the Catalan capital and its metropolitan area, and the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (Macba) will be the biggest beneficiaries of the agreement signed between Pedro Sánchez and Ada Colau in February 2020 to recover this co-capital agreement that already existed in the time of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and that recognized the cultural and scientific strength of Barcelona.
The Council of Ministers held today has approved the figures of the new co-capital agreement that allocate two million euros to the preparation of the Manifesta biennial and 1.3 to the Macba, half of them for its expansion. Next in importance are the figures that will go to the Museu de Ciències Naturals, with 1.24 million euros -700,000 for samples and 540,000 to finish the works on the Martorell Exhibition Center in the Parc de la Ciutadella- and the scholarship program for the creators Barcelona Creates, with 1.23 million.
Las fiestas de la Mercè will receive 1,175,000 euros for the Street Arts Festival and for the Barcelona Acció Musical concerts and the Mercat de les Flors, the city’s home of dance, will also receive more than a million, with 1.1 million, of which 800,000 are for the rehabilitation of the building. An exact million will be received by L’Auditori, for its new digital seal, its new educational project OBC educa and to renovate the seating area.
In total, the co-capital agreement, in which the money is put up by the Ministry of Culture but the destination is decided by the Ada Colau City Council, will serve to finance 42 performances. Among the most subsidized are also the rehabilitation of the Museu Picasso facades (900,000 euros), the carrying out of activities on videogames and digital creation in the Canòdrom (760,000), the popular Festival de la Llum (720,000), the exhibition program from La Virreina, La Fabra i Coats -which will also receive another 300,000 for its program of activities- and La Capella (710,000 euros) and the Barcelona District Cultural program (700,000 euros), which brings free theatre, dance and music to cultural centers from the city.
In performing arts, the Grec Festival will receive 600,000 euros, the Gran Teatre del Liceu 400,000 to finance operas such as Plensa’s Macbeth or Raquel Tomàs’ Alexina B., the Teatre Lliure 350,000 and the Joan Brossa-Centre de les Arts livres, 200,000 . The Palau de la Música will receive 400,000 for its cycle of resident composers and for the first phase of its new door.
In plastic arts, the MNAC will receive 510,000 euros for the exhibitions by Anglada Camarasa and Josefa Tolrà and for the Romanesque Art Congress, and 100,000 more for laptops, and the Fundació Miró 500,000 for the Imaginary Friends exhibition and for architectural improvements. And the Fundació Tàpies 350,000 euros for the commemoration of Any Tàpies. The Design Hub of Barcelona will receive 450,000 and the Museu d’Història de Barcelona, ??200,000 to celebrate its 80th anniversary. In addition, this center will host the award for the European museum of the year, a ceremony that will have 165,000 euros. Another 220,000 will be to buy art for the municipal museums.
In thought, the CCCB will receive 600,000 euros for its exhibition on artificial intelligence and for the renewal of hardware and software, while the preparation of the new edition of the Biennial of Thought will have 200,000, and 140,000 will go to a citizen party for scientific dissemination and cultural. The rehabilitation of the headquarters and adaptation of the spaces of the Julio Muñoz Ramonet Foundation will have 380,000 euros, the city’s literary festivals will receive 450,000 and the libraries, 650,000.
