Forty years in the service of heritage conservation

In 1981, the Department of Culture, taking forward the major legacy of the Republican-era Generalitat, carried out a national cultural facilities plan and launched the Centre for the Restoration of Artefacts of Catalonia (CRBMC). It was a strategic decision, comparable with the most culturally advanced countries, which highlighted the importance of heritage conservation in preserving the collective identity of our country.

After 40 intense years, we can express with satisfaction that the result of that project has been enormously positive, with more than 30,000 actions across the country. The CRBMC has always had a clear territorial vocation and has supported town councils, county councils, bishoprics and parishes, museums and archives, foundations and cultural associations.

This is a clear example of the way in which the cultural community needs to be strengthened. Catalan culture excels when it is based on the joint commitment of the different public administrations; Catalan culture excels when institutions achieve a high degree of coordination in their cultural policy and promote the creation of hybrid projects that, as occurs in this case, place heritage and its recovery at the heart of public policy.

During these years, the Centre has also been a benchmark in determining the criteria for heritage-related intervention, in accordance with international standards, and has contributed, in a large way, to consolidating conservation as a scientific discipline, promoting innovation and research, training and knowledge transfer. These have been years in which a group of highly qualified professionals have been trained in our country, who have carried out a great deal of work in the service of heritage and with whom the CRBMC has collaborated extensively.

The 2011-2018 catalogue shows us the path to follow, with the incorporation of new specialties into the Centre and the development of an ambitious innovation and research plan.

Because culture does not create itself; we all build it day after day, with every action we take. Culture is created by all the people who, in a different way, work on it with constancy and dedication. We live in a knowledge society that is highly diverse and transnational, and in view of this we need to act using the specificities of Catalan culture and aimed at the world.

The CRBMC is a good example of how a specificity projects us towards the world. For this reason, I would like to thank the entire team at the Centre for the work it has done over the years, as well as all the professionals in the country who have participated and the owners of the works, as well as all the institutions that have collaborated. It is the efforts made by all of them that ensure that everything is possible in Catalan culture.