One of the axes of the Culture budget, pending a complex negotiation, wants to “reinforce the audiovisual and digital industry as an economic and cultural engine”, seeking its national and international projection. For this, 56.3 million euros would be allocated. Of this figure, 35.5 million would be for own production, supporting the entire Catalan audiovisual value chain. And a portion of 10 million would be used to acquire land and adapt the Turbines de les Tres Xemeneies del Besòs building for Catalunya Media City.
Yesterday, in the Culture Committee of the Parliament of Catalonia, Councilor Natàlia Garriga detailed the main objectives of the Department of Culture’s budget item for this 2024: guarantee people’s cultural rights; build a strong cultural system; ensure the present and the future of Catalan, and turn the audiovisual industry into an economic and cultural engine of the country.
“Culture and language is one of the four axes of the Government”, he recalled, and in this sense the budget of the Generalitat would endow the ministry with 566 million euros, 1.7%. “We have 264 million more for culture than in 2021, and 89 million more than in 2023. And we will not stop until we reach 2%” before the end of the legislature. “Republican cultural policies must put people at the center and guarantee their rights”, pointed out Garriga, who expressed his commitment to “put culture on the same level as health, education or social rights, ensuring that absolutely everyone has access”.
“For the first time the departments of Culture and Education have looked at each other and are collaborating together”, he announced, so that arts and culture are more present in the classrooms. Young people’s access to culture is another of the objectives that are growing in these budgets: “We want to accompany young people so that the economic barrier is not an impediment to enjoying culture and acquiring cultural habits”.
Of the 56.2 million euros for cultural centers and equipment, the planned investment of 5.5 million to expand the installations of the National Archives of Catalonia, the expansion of the budget of the Filmoteca d’ 3.5% and the increase of 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 the Rambla in Barcelona, ??which will be the center of digital creativity (2.4 million initial and operational in 2027). The other is the Casa de les Lletres, in Palau Requesens, which will be the headquarters of the Institution of Catalan Letters, for 2027.
Finally, the Catalan language deserves special attention. “The language policy of the country is a challenge for the Government”, stated Garriga. For this reason, the ministry proposes to sign the National Pact for the Language definitively. “The situation of the Catalan language is diverse, complex and delicate, but it is also reversible”, stated the minister, who also mentioned the Aranese language and the Catalan sign language.
The endowment of the Secretariat of Linguistic Policy would rise to 63 million euros, an increase of 21% compared to the previous year. Of these resources, half would go to the Consortium for Linguistic Standardization, “one of the best tools we have to bring the language closer to the people who come to our home”. And another priority refers to cultural and technological products, so that Catalan is present in the audiovisual sector, video games and the internet.
