02 December, 2024
10 years promoting the transformation of sustainable food and citizen art in Spain
We are celebrating ten years in Spain committed to building a hopeful future from the present. This path has led us to be a dynamic agent of the cultural and agri-food sector. Now is the time to review and celebrate what has been achieved, without forgetting all the challenges that remain to be addressed.
Since the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation arrived in Spain in 2014, our mission has been clear: to contribute to generating innovative solutions that allow us to build more sustainable and fair futures through Citizen Art and Sustainable Food. Over the years, we have accompanied a wide variety of people and projects on their path to transition, stimulating hybridization between different disciplines and approaches. This joint work has allowed us to be part of the growth and strengthening of the donor foundation sector in Spain.
By supporting mediation and citizen participation, we have created bridges between people, stimulating curiosity and encouraging engagement. Our actions seek to generate social impact, based on research, experience, experimentation, evaluation and shared learning. The values of curiosity, originality, confidence, exigency and joy that guide us, reflect the legacy of our founders, Daniel and Nina Carasso. In addition, we continue to work towards a just and green transition, participating in philanthropic coalitions and adopting structural measures based on the pillars of the Climate Foundations Pact.
In this decade of work in Spain…
- More than 530 projects have been accompanied and supported
- More than 39 million euros have been invested, between grants and scholarships
Turning ten years old allows us to make a stop along the way to continue dreaming of what we can still build. These years have been possible thanks to the people and projects that have accompanied us, and together we will continue to promote real and necessary change.
Lucía Casani
General Director of the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation
SUSTAINABLE FOOD
The dynamics established in our food system urgently need a change and a transition towards a more sustainable model in which food is democratic, supportive and agroecological. At the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation we have worked to support initiatives that seek this end and, understanding this complexity, we have supported the creation of networks to address problems from a holistic perspective that encompasses the variety of solutions from different levels. The strategy in our Sustainable Food line consists of specifically articulating our three resources: subsidies, non-financial support, which includes impact measurement, and investments to contribute to impact and systemic change. To achieve this, we have worked in line with five themes.
Sustainable food is not just a goal, it is a path that requires collaboration, knowledge and action from multiple perspectives. Our work over the past ten years has shown that when networks are created and local solutions are articulated, systemic change is possible.
Eva Torremocha
Head of the Sustainable Food line
We have promoted research and innovation with initiatives such as the Daniel Carasso Fellowship programme, which supports postdoctoral researchers committed to sustainable food. From it has derived the SABE Community, a network in which all beneficiaries participate. To strengthen the global dimension, we have supported local food systems and citizen participation by articulating the territories with initiatives such as Sustentta or the projects selected in the call Territorialized Food Systems, which in 2024 has evolved in KmTierra. Other calls such as From the field to the pantry or the alliance of agroecological projects GIASAT are other initiatives that have evolved, thanks to the projects selected in the first and the change of scale in the second, the concept of agroecology, making it more accessible to more common markets.
Consumers are another of the audiences to which the support of the Carasso Foundation aims to reach, for this we have supported initiatives such as AlBarrio or the study “Feeding a sustainable future” that promote greater democracy and food justice. The last topic from which we work is the systemic vision, in which the production and dissemination of the knowledge acquired is key. One of the initiatives that exemplify this action is the think tank Alimentta , which addresses in-depth research from science to dissemination through the podcast of the same name.
CITY ART
Art responds to our desire to understand the world, generate networks in society, project new realities and understand our own emotions. From our Citizen Art line we have sought to support artists, scientists, cultural institutions and civil society organizations that use art to promote citizen participation, cultivate a critical and sensitive perspective, and strengthen social cohesion by valuing diversity. Citizen art promotes a sustainable and just future that is born from citizen action through artistic works that address the complexity of active change. In this way, a democratic and accessible artistic practice becomes the best tool for social transformation.
Citizen art has the capacity to transform realities, because it connects people, sensitizes them and encourages them to act. In these ten years we have seen how artistic projects can open up new ways of imagining and building a fairer future.
Pepa Octavio de Toledo
Responsible for the Citizen Art line
Our approach has been articulated around four key themes, among which we can find the promotion of artistic practices in schools through the PLANEA Network or the one that promotes collaboration between art, science and society, with the call Composing Knowledge to imagine and build sustainable futures or with the ACTS Network. which promotes co-creation between researchers and artists.
Citizen participation is another key axis to achieve our objectives, so work focused on improving democracy and cultural mediation is essential. In this way, we have supported projects selected in the call for Alliances for a cultural democracy or strategic initiatives such as Concomitentes or the Direct Complement scholarships for cultural mediators. And finally, we have the theme Citizen Artist, which accompanies artists who generate new perspectives, inspire new futures and promote social change. The recently created call Art to come is the future of this line of action.
A DESIRABLE FUTURE
This anniversary has helped us to look back on the path we have already traveled, but also to be able to consider everything we can still achieve. We seek that desirable future with the inspiration that gives us the certainty that, with your collaboration, we can achieve the goals and goals of the future. create a lasting legacy for generations to come. In addition to our two lines of action, Sustainable Food and Citizen Art, we must not and do not want to forget another issue that crosses us, environmental challenges. From the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation we have supported the activation of foundations dedicated to climate change, such as Climate Foundations, which has committed to adopting structural measures based on the 7 pillars of the Climate Foundations Pact. In addition, in 2024 we have organized the second day of one, A meeting in which experts and key actors from the food sector meet to address the challenges towards a fairer and greener food system.
A fundamental axis of our strategy to achieve this substantial change is impact investing, which allows us to support projects aimed at contributing to the sustainable development of society while generating income and becoming self-sufficient. Until then, they need an investment that will allow them to sustain the initiative until it is solvent. We participate in different projects in this way, such as the Tiina program, with which, in addition to supporting them financially, we have accompanied and advised them in their process.
In 2025, Infinito Delicias will open its doors to the public. This hub will be the largest initiative to date in which the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation collaborates through impact investing. Infinito Delicias will be a unique space for citizen experimentation with more than 2,700 square meters in the Madrid neighborhood of Delicias, which will function as a laboratory to live, work, learn and experiment. It will be the epicentre of an ecosystem in which citizens, companies and foundations will be able to collaborate and invent the future of sustainable food, culture and the economy with a positive impact.
The name of the project comes from the idea of an infinite place. It is a place, a space in the city, where anything can happen and there are a multitude of possibilities. A place that we cannot completely define and that is open to the unforeseen, to everything that may arise from the neighborhood, from the city, from the organizations with which we are going to collaborate.
Francesco Cingolani
Director of Infinito Delicias
THANK YOU
On this tenth anniversary, we want to thank all the people, entities and organizations that have been with us along the way. This achievement would not have been possible without your help, commitment and generosity. Over the years, we have learned from every link in our ecosystem, and together we have taken steps towards a more sustainable and culturally enriching future. Thank you for making it possible. We will continue to work so that sustainable food and citizen art are fundamental pillars of our society.
