Purpose:
Apropa Cultura (Close to Culture) is a network of cultural facilities, such as theatres, concert halls, festivals and museums, whose main purpose is to encourage inclusiveness promoting cultural activities and events.
Stimulus/Rationale:
Agropa Cultura (Close to Culture) philosophy is that the access to culture is a right; it dignifies the person and normalises their full inclusion in society. Its main goal is to prevent social exclusion encouraging people’s participation through culture. Apropa (Close to Culture) strongly believes that culture develops creativity while improving people’s wellbeing, confidence and self-esteem.
Process:
The initiative started during the season 2006/2007 when L’Auditori launched the Auditori Apropa: a programme targeted to groups at risk of social exclusion, encouraging minorities to attend events at a lower price.
In particular, the following vulnerable groups are tageted: people with intellectual or physical disabilities, mental illness, elderlies, immigrants, children and adolescents, people with drug addictions and women victims of domestic violence.
Apropa (Close to Culture) offers a wide range of shows and cultural activities at accessible prices: free visits to museums and cultural centres training courses about performing, arts, music, plastic and visual arts. For instance, Educa amb l’Art (“Educate with Art”) is a project for social workers and therapists without any prior knowledge in art and music.
Characteristics of the Close to Culture programming:
- Tickets at a social price
- Easy booking through the web
- Access to the regular cultural programming
- Keep in mind the diverse needs of each group
Apropa (Close to Culture) organises annualy a campaign with the participation of professionals from the social and cultural sectors, to make the transformative power of culture visible.
Impact:
After the initial success, l’Auditori invited other organisations in Barcelona to participate and, as a result, the Apropa Cultura was enriched with all sorts of events: music, theatre, dance and circus.
Besides enlarging the target groups and type of activities, Apropa has expanded the network to different territories and cultural centres. Nowadays, Apropa Cultura is implemented in 15 municipalities with 2,800 social centres and 200 cultural centres and festivals.
Since 2013, 1,250 people attended the training courses on accessibility and diversity and since 2011, 4,600 people have enrolled in the Educate with Art courses.
Key reference documents: https://www.apropacultura.org/en/apropa-cultura
