Guarantee the cultural rights of people; build a strong cultural system; securing the present and future of Catalan, and turning the audiovisual industry into an economic and cultural engine of the country are the main objectives of the budgets of the Department of Culture for this 2024, as can be seen from the appearance in the culture commission of the Parliament of Catalonia of the councilor Natàlia Garriga.
“Culture and language is one of the four axes of the Government”, he recalled, and in this sense the budget of the Generalitat would provide the department with 566 million euros, 1.7% of the total. Now, the approval of the budgets is pending a complex negotiation.
“Now we have 264 million more for culture than in 2021, and 89 million more than in fiscal year 2023. And we will not stop until we reach 2% at the end of the legislature, just as we committed to the first time we appeared at the headquarters parliamentary”.
“Republican cultural policies must put people at the center and guarantee their rights,” said Garriga, who has expressed his commitment to “put culture at the same level as health, education or social rights, ensuring that “Absolutely everyone has access to it.”
“For the first time, the Departments of Culture and Education have looked at each other and collaborated together,” the councilor announced, so that arts and culture are more present in the classrooms.
Young people’s access to culture is another of the objectives that grow in these budgets: “We want to accompany young people so that the economic barrier is not an impediment to enjoying culture, and encourage them to acquire cultural habits.”
Another of the axes of the Culture budgets wants to “strengthen the audiovisual and digital industry as an economic and cultural engine”, seeking its national and international projection. For this, 56.3 million euros are allocated.
Of these, 35.5 million will be for own production, supporting the entire Catalan audiovisual value chain. And a portion of 10 million will be used to acquire land and adapt the Turbines de las Tres Xemeneies del Besòs ship for Catalunya Media City.
Of the 56.2 million euros for cultural centers and equipment, highlights include the investment of 5.5 million to expand the facilities of the National Archive of Catalonia, the expansion of the Film Library’s budget by 3.5% and the increase 5.2% for Arts Santa Mònica.
The budgets also include the creation of two new cultural centers. One is La Foneria, the historic building on Barcelona’s Rambla, which will be the center of digital creativity, for which an initial 2.4 million euros are allocated, and it is expected that it can begin operating in 2027. The other is the Casa de les Lletres, in the Palau Requesens, which will be the headquarters of the Institució de les Lletres Catalanes, and is scheduled to open in the first quarter of 2027.
Finally, the Catalan language deserves special attention. “The language policy of the country is a challenge of Gobierno”, said Councilor Garriga. For this reason, the ministry intends to definitively sign the National Pact for the Language.
“The situation of the Catalan language is diverse, complex and delicate, but it is also reversible,” said the councilor, who also mentioned the Occitan language of Aran and the Catalan sign language.
The endowment of the Secretary of Linguistic Policy rises to 63 million euros, an increase of 21% compared to the previous year. Of these resources, half will be allocated to the Consorci per a la Normalització Lingüística, “one of the best tools we have to bring the language closer to the people who come to our home.”
Another priority is for the Catalan language to be present in cultural and technological products, such as the audiovisual sector, video games and the Internet.
