"Art for Change" promotes 20 new artistic projects for social transformation for vulnerable collectives

The "la Caixa" Foundation will allocate 445,680 euros to promote 20 new projects from all over Spain selected in its annual "Art for Change" call. This call offers aid to artistic projects in disciplines such as plastic arts, photography, video, music, literature, theatre, dance and circus, which promote the active role of groups in vulnerable situations.

The initiative provides a boost to the cultural fabric in Spain through these grants to artists and cultural organisations, as well as fostering communication networks between them through the different meetings organised throughout the year to share learning and experiences.

In the 2022 call, 168 proposals were submitted by artists and cultural organisations from all over Spain. In total, 20 projects have been selected that have passed a first artistic evaluation and in a second phase a technical-social evaluation. These will be carried out in the provinces of Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante, Murcia, León, Zamora, Córdoba, Granada, Navarra and Lleida. More than 2,479 people in vulnerable situations will participate in them and will have the opportunity to take part in a process of artistic creation.

The 20 projects that have been chosen meet the objectives of the programme: the promotion of the personal development of the participants through their involvement in the creative process; social cohesion and inclusion through the creation of neutral spaces for relationships, exchange and coexistence, and social regeneration of a community nature through activities that contribute to the development of neighbourhoods or social groups and reinforce concepts such as identity and self-confidence.

Among those selected are projects in disciplines such as theatre, dance, music, plastic arts, photography or video; and they focus on groups such as racialised people, women victims of gender violence, the elderly, people with functional diversity or with health problems, among others.

Proposals developed in previous editions of "Art for Change" have gone beyond the physical format to join the programme of CaixaForum+, an online platform promoted by the "la Caixa" Foundation with a catalogue of cultural and scientific dissemination proposals that is unique in Spain. This is the case of "Mírame de nuevo", "Els dies que no oblidarem", "Sediments" and "Familia grande", among others.

Almudena Adalia Calvo and Pilar de Grado, artists who led the project "Mírame de nuevo", selected in the 2020 edition, highlighted the benefits for the participants of being able to take part in the initiative: "On an expressive level, in terms of autonomy, creative development and teamwork. It gave them the opportunity to be recognised for their work and to be listened to, as they were saying things that they do not usually express or are not asked about".

In this sense, Marta Fernández Calvo, head of the project "Invisible Caregivers", also selected in 2020, explained: "Important changes were observed in the coping with unwanted loneliness, new social skills and in the use of technologies were enhanced and a network of mutual support was generated among the participants that was maintained after the end of the project".

The "la Caixa" Foundation has been a pioneer in the search for new ways of understanding culture. The exhibitions are a meeting point for different types of public and the activities involve people from different backgrounds and of all ages who take the initiative and play an active role. Initiatives in which the public and the creators work together to give meaning to art. From this vocation was born, in 2007, "Art for Change", a programme that combines artistic creation and personal and social transformation, that encourages participation in creative processes of any artistic discipline to favour collaboration and inclusion and that is respectful of diversity and open to learning and listening to society.

Through "la Caixa" Foundation's "Art for Change", creative processes are generated led by artists, involving groups in vulnerable situations or people from the same environment or neighbourhood with the aim of promoting processes of social transformation. By promoting these initiatives, participants are offered the opportunity to come into contact with art and culture under equal conditions and opportunities and contribute to the empowerment of individuals or groups through an artistic process.