The Council’s Activities and Tasks
CONFERENCE: ‘OVERCOMING LIMITS. NEW FORMS OF GOVERNANCE FOR THE CULTURE OF BARCELONA’
23 October 2023
On Monday 23 October, the Espai LAB at Palau de la Virreina was the setting for the conference ‘Overcoming limits. New forms of governance for the culture of Barcelona’, which was held by the Barcelona Culture Council. The event included two round tables in which guest speakers shared their experiences with the attendees that filled up the room. At the end of each discussion, they had the opportunity to take part with their questions and opinions.
Following a welcome speech by Eva Sòria, Director of Innovation, Knowledge and Visual Arts of the Barcelona Institute of Culture (ICUB), the first discussion held was entitled ‘Governance in community cultural development’. This round table was moderated by Ester Bonal, director of Xamfrà, a music and performance centre for social inclusion, and chair of the Executive Committee of the Culture Council. The guest experiences were Fes! Culture by Diego Salazar, a cultural manager who specialises in designing cultural projects with a social impact; Periferia Cimarronas, with the actress, theatre director and creator Silvia Albert Sopale; and Torre de la Segrera, with the communicator and cultural manager Arnau Cristóbal. The matters raised in these experiences included the perpetuation of certain models and the difficulties involved in changing them; the need to network and the need for cultural mediation due to the heterogeneity today’s population; the importance of local residents being involved in governance and of opening up this opportunity up to immigrants and their children; the lack of economic resources; and organisation as a tool to combat social exclusion.
The second round table, which was entitled ‘Co-production in decision-making’, featured Irene Calvís, the head of the LiceuApropa programme at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, who explained the La Gata Perduda experience; the artist Erick Beltrán, who talked about Lumburg Press; and Eva Sòria, Director of Innovation, Knowledge and Visual Arts at the ICUB, who provided information on the Barcelona Crea Grants. The discussion was moderated by Nicolás Barbieri, an associate lecturer at the UOC, a cultural rights researcher and a member of the Culture Council. Each speaker explained how decisions are taken or have been taken in the past in their experience. Irene Calvís highlighted the importance of mainstreaming; Erik Beltrán stressed the need to adapt in each case and at each moment; and Eva Sòria explained how the grant project had been carried out and the jury’s role in this type of project. They all agreed that every way of doing things and making decisions has its own pros and cons and that there is always room for improvement and review.
The closing speech was given by Culture Council member Pau Alsina.
THE SENSE OF CULTURE
June 2, 2022
One of the raised objectives in recent times by the Plenary itself is to establish a permanent dialogue among all members of the Culture Council. The starting shot in the process to attain so was in the “The Sense of Culture” debate, with the participation of Antonio Monegal, author of his self-titled book, and Jordi Martí, deputy mayor of Culture, Education, Science and Community. The session was moderated by Ester Bonal and Alexandra Laudo, and it led to a very interesting discussion concerning the concept of culture in the 21st Century.