The government approved a grant of 20 million euros for the city of Barcelona for its status as European capital, as announced on Tuesday by Government Spokesperson and Minister of Education, Pilar Alegría, during the press conference after the Council of Ministers.
The grant, proposed by the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, authorized the Ministry of Culture to directly grant 46 grants to various cultural entities in Barcelona, charged to the budget of the Ministry of Culture, corresponding to the 2024 financial year .
“The approval of a grant of 20 million euros has already been given, on the occasion of the designation of the city of Barcelona as cultural capital,” he said. The minister explained that the grant can be used to organize musical, artistic or scientific events.
In 2025, Barcelona will be the headquarters of the third edition of Mondiacult, the World Conference on Cultural Policies, named after the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). This will be the third edition of the conference and it will be the first time that it will be held in Europe. We will discuss cultural rights, heritage or museums, according to the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, who announced this event last February.
“This will be a unique opportunity for our country to lead the global debate on cultural cooperation,” Urtasun emphasized in his X account.
Barcelona is a great cultural light that all administrations have the duty to promote so that it continues to shine as it does.
On the proposal of @culturagobThe Council of Ministers approved aid and subsidies to promote cultural co-capitality.
– Ernest Urtasun (@ernesturtasun) October 8, 2024
According to the Ministry of Culture, the planned actions “promote the strengthening and development, quantitative and qualitative, of the cultural activity of the city of Barcelona, with a systemic approach”.
In this way, a balance is sought between the support of large cultural facilities and institutions of diverse entities, due to their capacity to activate synergies and cross-relations, essential in the cultural ecosystem of Barcelona, both in relation to the rest of Spain, as well as with regard to the international context.
“All the proposed actions contribute to the strengthening of the local and national cultural ecosystem, as well as its system of relations, and their joint and exceptional promotion is justified specifically for reasons of social and economic interest,” underlines the organization.
Among the 46 institutions that will benefit from the grant are the Gran Teatre del Liceu Foundation for Operas, the private Foundation Orfeó Català-Palau de la Música Catalana, the National Art Museum of Catalonia, the Consortium of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona, the Consorci de l’Auditori i Orquestra, the Joan Miró Foundation-Center for Contemporary Art Studies, the Antoni Tapiès Foundation, the Joan Brossa Private Foundation, the Taller de Músics Private Foundation, the Consortium of Museums of Natural Sciences or the Institute of Culture of Barcelona, Consortium of Libraries of Barcelona.
