Spanish Cooperation Cultural Centres
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La Casa Tomada
Background
La Casa Tomada is a project of the Cultural Centre of Spain in El Salvador, which began in 2012, and combines various types of management models, both European and American. In Spain, the Matadero Madrid Cultural Centre, focused on the world of contemporary creative work, opened in 2006, and set out an innovative line, providing an alternative space for groups working in the fields of drama, film and design, among other areas. Subsequently, the Tabacalera Selfgoverning Social Centre opened in the Madrid neighbourhood of Lavapiés in 2010, when Ángeles Albert was Director General for Fine Arts in the Spanish Ministry of Culture. The Tabacalera centre represented a model that was closer to the local population and to the protests being voiced by young people with few alternative channels of expression. It opened the way to a new type of public-private collaboration, in which shared management was an essential aspect of its structure. This same approach was adopted by La Casa Tomada in 2011, in line with many other initiatives of this type aroused by the 15M citizens’ movement, as part of a widespread reaction to political and social problems and deficiencies, particularly within the cultural sector. The term “private” came to be used by many entities, ranging from corporate interests to citizens’ movements, from foundations created by large corporations to neighbourhood associations or marginalised groups. However, it was the latter type of organisation that really made an impression in towns and cities, especially in less privileged neighbourhoods. The cutbacks in funding for culture encouraged a new generation of groups and communities to step in, united by common interests. In a way, the financial crisis stimulated
other ways of managing culture: on the one hand, these new entities were more philanthropic and horizontal, but they were also more profitable and sustainable. Today, as can be seen in the Culture and Citizenship initiative of the Ministry of Culture, there are many such associative projects and spaces. From the rural world, to new technologies, through housing, leisure, urban vegetable plots or any other area imaginable, the paradigm of community management has become part of our DNA, not only among the new generations, but among society as a whole. La Casa Tomada then, is a child of its times. In America, one of the inspirational models that has most strongly influenced La Casa is Puntos de Cultura (Culture Points), a project aimed at enhancing community cultural activities and, more broadly, the philosophy of its creator, the Brazilian Celio Turino. Secretary of Culture for Brazil between 2004 and 2010 and promoter of the programme Community Living Culture, carried out via Culture Points. Turino visited La Casa Tomada on various occasions to provide guidance and instruction to its staff and users. Other models such as the Network of Arts and Crafts Workshops (FAROS) in Mexico, the mARTadero project in Bolivia and the Brazilian network of cultural groups Fora do Eixo, among others, were also keenly observed by La Casa Tomada in shaping its model of administration and management. The name The name is inspired by the short story by Julio Cortázar, Casa tomada (House taken over), a dialectic inquiry into the boundaries between “I” and “we”. The text narrates the gradual occupation of a large house by a group of entities expressed as an indefinite
