Tres Culturas and La Caixa take final stock of their joint co-operation

The Minister of the Presidency, Public Administration and Interior, Elías Bendodo, together with the corporate director of Territory and Centres of the La Caixa Foundation, Rafael Chueca, met in Seville to present a balance of the six years of collaboration between the two entities.

Bendodo has emphasized the most relevant milestones achieved during these years in which the Three Cultures Foundation would have received 250,000 euros from La Caixa. Thanks to this amount, it has been possible to execute and develop activities in the Foundation, with special emphasis on the forums organised in 2016 and 2017 on geopolitics in the Mediterranean. Along these lines, Bendodo stressed that this collaboration is a "magnificent example of the benefits of cooperation between public and private entities". 

Following this event, the collaboration agreement between the two foundations was signed for 2021, with the aim of renewing the common commitment to "fostering knowledge of different cultures, promoting democratic values and practices, as well as recognising the valuable contribution of the three monotheistic religions to the cultural construction of the Mediterranean area". This renewal of cooperation has brought with it the announcement of an important music festival to be held at the end of July, as well as the 'Sepharad in Three Cultures' cycle during the month of September.

In the words of Bendodo, "every cultural activity or event that we bring forward jointly between La Caixa and Tres Culturas gives us back a bit of life before the Covid, the longed-for normality to which we hope to return soon". 

The event was attended by the Secretary General for External Action of the Andalusian Government, Jose Enrique Millo, together with the new director of the Three Cultures Foundation, Concha de Santa Ana, who was appointed in 2018 as president of the Committee on Culture, Science, Education and the Media of the Council of Europe, an important moment for culture since that year was designated the European Year of Cultural Heritage.

According to Santa Ana, "This Foundation was able to see that the Three Cultures Foundation works for some necessary objectives for the society in which we live and that culture as an instrument of dialogue and respect to reach the citizenship is not a chimera, but that here we make it become a reality".

The president concluded by expressing her hopes for a renewal of the collaboration in the year 2025, stating that she hoped that in four years' time they would "meet again to present the balance of our first decade working together".

The event was also attended by the regional director of CaixaBank in Western Andalusia and Extremadura, María Jesús Catalá, and the regional director of CaixaBank in Eastern Andalusia, Ceuta and Melilla, Juan Ignacio Zafra.