The Spanish Government has committed with the Generalitat to participate in the expansion of the National Museum of Art of Catalonia (MNAC), in view of the centenary of the institution, in 2034, and that should represent a great push for the museum , the redevelopment of Montjuïc and the restructuring of the Fira Barcelona space, according to the agreement reached by the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, and the corresponding minister, Natàlia Garriga, in their first meeting, this Friday. It is a political agreement, of intentions, without the fact that at the moment there is a designated budget. Urtasun, however, said that there would be "more investment" to get the museum to become "a great international benchmark".
Two of the ministry's commitments to the Generalitat have to do with facilities in Tarragona: on the one hand, this year a competition will be called for the project of a provincial library "that is up to par", and on the other that the Museum Archaeological Museum of Tarragona - owned by the state with Catalan management - which has been closed for years for renovations, and the minister has assured that three million euros will be allocated to execute the museum project. He also wanted to highlight the maintenance of the contribution of 100,000 euros to the Ramon Llull Institute, and in the same line of contributing to "defend the cultural and linguistic wealth of Spain" a working group will be created between the ministry and the ministry for the promotion and dissemination of creation in Catalan, of which no further details have been given either.
Urtasun also wanted to highlight that in his recent trip to Paris, where he met with the director general of Unesco, Audrey Azoulay, he offered Barcelona as the venue to host the next World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development, Mondiacult , in 2025, the candidacy that Spain presented last October. In a press release from the ministry, reference was also made to the possibility of supporting initiatives such as Catalunya Media City - in the Tres Xemeneies - to boost the audiovisual industry.
On the other hand, Garriga has assured that the matters they have dealt with are a small sample of a "very long list" of demands, especially after the ministry's budgets have increased strongly in recent years (from 298 million in 2020 , 1.1%, to 466 in 2023, 1.5%, with the announced goal of reaching 2% soon), the State's investment in Catalonia in culture has been decreasing, while lately Madrid has received large investments in Next Generation funds.
