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MANIFEST OF XARXA CENTRES ART CATALUNYA FOR COVID-19

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POSITION PAPER FROM THE XARXA DE CENTRES D'ART DE CATALUNYA IN THE CONTEXT OF THE CRISIS CAUSED BY COVID-19

With the crisis caused by COVID-19, the impact to the visual arts sector is, and will be, huge, with the additional complication that we have arrived here from previous circumstances of systemic and economic deficiency.

As Xarxa de Centres d’Arts Visuals de Catalunya, we remain aware that we must work harder than ever to help keep the visual arts sector active. This is why we are convinced that art centres must work hard to support our sector in each region, while at the same time coordinating with the actions undertaken by the Department of Culture of the Generalitat, and those of other organisations and associations in the sector, such as the Plataforma Assembleària d’Artistes de Catalunya, the Associació Catalana de Crítica d’Art, Xarxaprod, Actua Cultura, ArtBarcelona and the Gremi de Galeries d’Art de Catalunya (Guild of Art Galleries of Catalonia).

Our joint approach is to lend our support to any initiative that will help our professionals to continue working to adequate standards in a professional, dignified manner. This demands active policies to create new opportunities, while also listening to and taking under consideration the contributions of all organisations and workers in the visual arts, from artistic practice, criticism, curation, etc. We believe that art centres are, and can be, a necessary platform to promote actions favourable to visual arts professionals, with results which will have a positive impact upon society, and therefore:

1. We appreciate the approval of the first packages of cultural support measures from the Generalitat’s Department of Culture and some town and city councils, but even so, we consider it necessary to adopt further actions and policies of greater impact and scope, specifically designed for this crisis which will so profoundly affect us in the short, medium and long term.

2. We demand that all Art Centres in the Xarxa de Centres d’Arts Visuals de Catalunya maintain the facilities and budgets assigned by each town and city council.

3. We support and are joining in the campaigns already initiated by Actua Cultura, the PAAC, and the ACCA. Most particularly, we emphasise and also demand:

     - The implementation of the Artists’ Rights Act in the workplace and in the area of taxation.

     - 2% of the budget for Culture.

     - That 1.5% of public works should be earmarked for the opening of support programmes for artists.

     - The activation of policies that promote patronage/sponsorship.

4. We propose the creation of new funds to support independent visual arts professionals, which we offer to administer through the Xarxa de Centres d’Arts Visuals de Catalunya.

Specifically, we propose:

    -  Assistance for research and investigation projects for artists, critics and research groups, for the development of new projects.

    - Assistance for the production of artworks which may be subsequently acquired as a public asset through the Contemporary Art Acquisitions Plan.

    - Assistance for artistic projects of community action in the social, educational, health, etc., contexts.

   - Assistance for digital artistic projects, including those aimed at raising awareness of artists on the international stage.

Finally, we wish to let it be known that the members of the Xarxa de Centres d’Arts Visuals de Catalunya are rescheduling our exhibitions and activities with resources which have already been allocated, with the intention of carrying out those programmes which have already been planned. Therefore, in order to be able to consider new projects specifically designed to alleviate the effects of the current crisis, we, the members of the Xarxa de Centres d’Arts Visuals de Catalunya, wish to state with absolute clarity that extraordinary resources must be found in order that we may contribute, as actively and as purposefully as we would hope to do, to the emergency plan of the contemporary visual arts sector.

The directors of the centres of the Xarxa de Centres d’Arts Visuals de Catalunya.

ACVIC Centre d’Arts Contemporànies
Bòlit Centre d’Art Contemporani, Girona 
Centre d’Art la Panera, Lleida
Centre d’Art Tarragona
Centre d’Art Tecla Sala, L’Hospitalet de Llobregat
Fabra i Coats: Centre d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona i Fàbrica de Creació
Lo Pati Centre d’Art de les Terres de l’Ebre, Amposta
MAC Mataró Art Contemporani

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