2020 Call for Proposals: Alliances for Cultural Democracy

We present the call “Alliances for a Cultural Democracy”, which we launched this year from our Citizen Art line to offer aid to transformative mediation practices. You have from March 5 to June 10 to apply!

With this call we seek to activate forms of relationship and collaboration between the multiple and diverse agents of the cultural mediation sector that allow this work to be carried out in a sustainable and transformative way for all parties.

It is part of our line of action “Mediation and Cultural Democracy”, which aims to generalize (multiply and adopt in a long term) transformative mediation practices that allow the full participation of citizens in cultural life and in the public sphere, thus contributing to cultural democracy.

Art as a lever for change

Art can and should be a powerful engine of citizen participation and social change in the face of inequalities, environmental emergencies and the rest of the challenges we face as a society.

Hence the term Citizen Art that gives its name to our program: it encompasses all artistic disciplines, seeks to create and strengthen social bonds, imagine other possible worlds and develop our sensitivity and critical thinking.

Due to how unequal the practice of art, its access, enjoyment and citizen participation in cultural institutions and policies is today, from our line of action “Mediation and Cultural Democracy” we seek to contribute to blurring the traditional boundaries between society and cultural institutions, making them more open and participatory, and enabling that real involvement and appropriation of art by people.

The importance of cultural mediation

We believe that cultural mediation and education activities (any public or parallel activity that is generated around or independently of the usual programming of a cultural institution, and whose main objective is to connect people more deeply with art), have a fundamental role in a paradigm shift towards a “new institutionality” that contributes to a true cultural democracy.

We understand that cultural mediation encompasses all activities that, beyond the specific name given to them, promote the exchange of experiences and perspectives among participants, as well as the involvement of citizens in the production of artistic work and knowledge, building community through art.

It is a form of education that takes into account diverse knowledge (academic, popular, artistic, etc.), that is not segmented by age or abilities, and that is committed to collaborative and cooperative learning processes. In addition, it dissolves the traditional separation between artistic practice and education, between high culture and popular culture.

For all these reasons, we believe that cultural mediation is an excellent tool for social transformation, as it enables citizens to reflect, share and actively participate, through art, in the definition and resolution of the challenges and problems of their context. This allows citizens to be empowered and, at the same time, creates meeting points for institutions, artists, mediators and communities, in which to enrich each other.

Our Challenge

The field of mediation in Spain is characterised by a high degree of fragmentation and precariousness, despite its importance in the construction of empathetic, emancipated and participatory societies.

Its agents are multiple and diverse: from small independent collectives that work with communities, to large companies that offer education and mediation services, to the educational or public activities departments of cultural institutions. It is an ecosystem weakened by the lack of resources, derived, among others, from the lack of awareness of cultural decision-makers about the need for these practices to promote a sensitive, critical and committed citizenry, not only to art and culture, but also to the challenges and urgencies we face as a society.

To generalize these practices, through the call we are looking for collaborative projects in two modalities:

Modality 1
We seek alliances between:

a) A cultural institution, public or private, with a stable activity of cultural production and/or exhibition in any discipline (visual arts, performing arts, audiovisuals, music…), in Spanish territory (museums, art centres, artistic creation centres, scenic and/or musical facilities such as theatres and auditoriums, theatre companies, dance companies, orchestras, choirs, networks that bring together any of the above)

and

b) Independent agents in the field of mediation/arts education for the joint design and implementation of innovative mediation/education programmes or projects involving the active participation of citizens.

In this modality, cultural institutions provide resources, infrastructure and durability to projects and programs, which are enriched thanks to the greater flexibility and diversity of views of external agents.

Modality 2
We seek alliances between:

a) A Public Administration at any territorial level, with the capacity to design and implement public policies (City Councils, Department of Culture, Ministry of Culture, Provincial Councils, Ministry of Culture and Sport, etc.)

and at least one of the following:

b) One or more cultural institutions.

c) One or more independent agents in the field of cultural mediation/artistic education.

Initiatives that propose, for example, to carry out territorial diagnoses of the situation of cultural mediation, to build mechanisms for the participation of civil society in the processes of defining public policies in the field of culture and cultural mediation; designing strategies that value cultural mediation and artistic education projects inside and outside cultural institutions; collectively redrafting the public sector procurement specifications in cultural matters or any other innovation in public-social partnerships aimed at achieving the objectives of this call.

In both modalities, the project must be developed mainly in Spanish territory, and, in addition to the entities that formally constitute the alliance, it may involve other collaborating agents. It is important that the selection of alliance members and partners is consistent with the proposed programme of activities.

We believe that these alliances have the capacity to strengthen pioneering and courageous practices and deepen the dynamics of citizen participation that occur in cultural institutions. They also allow the institution to question itself and open up to new ways of doing, of understanding itself and of relating to citizens.

You can consult the complete rules, here.

© Photo : Julio Albarrán