On March 18, four days after the declaration of state of alarm in Spain on the occasion of the COVID-19, the first package of measures urgent destined to cultural sector in order to respond to the situation.
The new package of measures, designed as a result of the Consistory’s dialogue with the cultural sector, direct attention to the creation of networks of support for and accompaniment, more direct aid and the reinforcement and adaptation of cultural programs existing. In this way you want to revitalize culture from the bottom up. In total, since the start of the state of alarm, 4.5 million euros will have been allocated to promoting the culture of the city.
Direct aid measures for new projects
A extraordinary grant of 300,000 euros to new projects in reproductive and innovation terms. This economic resource is designed to promote projects in a post-COVID-19 scenario. The call will open in June and will allow for applications for new projects and initiatives that help to draw a future scenario.
Projects of different categories may be presented, such as new context actions, research, laboratory, social capital or creation projects. You will find more information in this link.
To boost the adaptation of cultural spaces to security requirements established after COVID-19, an extraordinary grant of 200,000 euros will also be activated. The grant is intended for movie theaters, bookstores, art galleries and cultural commerce in the city.
On the other hand, the City Council will enable public spaces with the aim of reviving live music in the city. The initiative, which is called the Barcelona Room Project, will adapt public spaces with the necessary infrastructures to make them available to concert halls, artists and festivals during the summer months.
Apollo Room.
(Aj. Barcelona)
Measures to revitalize grassroots culture: a one hundred percent Grec Festival in Barcelona
The package includes measures to enhance or reinforce existing cultural programs, such as the expansion of those that link culture and education (En Residència or Tot Dansa), or those to promote culture on the street (Musics al Carrer, which for the moment will include ten new points in Ciutat Vella). On the other hand, the Barts Room will become the new Barcelona House of Music, a space in which proposals for the promotion of the most vulnerable sectors will be programmed.
But the main course will be for him Grec Festival, which will maintain the budget of 3.3 million euros but, nevertheless, will be starred by local companies, with some eighty proposals (50 local co-productions, 15 shows canceled during these months of confinement and 15 more from outside Catalonia and international ).
Performance of the Grec Festival 2019.
(Aj. Barcelona)
The Grec Festival shows will have a single price of 15 euros and apreduced price of 5 euros for family shows, and much of the activity will be concentrated at the Teatre Grec, the Teatre Lliure, the Mercat de les Flors and the TNC.
The conditions established by the health authorities will determine the capacity of shows in theaters, and different museums will join, for the first time, the Grec Festival. In addition, this year’s edition will serve as a test stage for new online formats, with live and delayed broadcasting of shows.
Support and accompaniment measures
The office Rambles ticket will be transformed into a new reception space intended to give support and advice to the cultural fabric of the city. Although the execution of the Citizen Office of the
Culture will last until September 2021, in this initial phase it will already offer advice on subsidies and other municipal aid, and personalized attention on the measures established in the crash plan.
On the other hand, the Barcelona Institute of Culture will launch, in the autumn, a public platform that must become a virtual space at the service of the local artistic fabric. In this platform, public and private initiatives will be collected to support the new formats that arise as a result of the health crisis.
Finally, they will be developed promotional and information actions in order to reactivate cultural activity and the consumption of culture in the neighborhoods, through a communication campaign and a website to support culture that will be launched on May 18.
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