Almeria

How can we use participative cultural activities to generate social integration and address the general lack of cultural demand? With 10% of foreign population and 6% of Roma people, Almería is one of the most diverse cities in Spain and Andalusia.

Almería’s history is founded on different cultures such as Phoenicians, Romans, Arabs, Jews and an endless list of immigrants attracted by the prosperous economic periods. However, this diversity has not resulted in a cohesive society. Today, the social barriers with the neighborhoods with the highest rate of foreign or Roma population (La Chanca or Almedina) replace the physical barriers among the three neighborhoods that the city walls represented. Almeria’s diverse history has led to a long cultural tradition based on different topics around non-material heritage and an important cultural heritage. Despite this, cultural production is consumed by a small rate of population and cultural demand is usually concentrated on people with the highest level of socio-cultural resources.

Almería’s challenge is to use participative cultural production as a tool to connect segregated neighborhoods and social groups through a common multicultural and diverse identity and to produce a critical mass for cultural demand in the city.

CAMINA proposes to use culture as a tool for social integration by creating a new attractive and integrative city narrative of multiculturalism based on History and promoting access to culture to a wider range of the population. CAMINA’s Cultural Landscape Storytelling Group will build Almeria’s collective narrative using Design Thinking techniques. This narrative will represent all the diverse social groups of the city.

3 cultural landscapes will structure the narrative: Old Sea Port, Alcazaba, and Indaliano realism. The Narrative will be transmitted to citizens through a circular route composed of physical and IT interventions that will connect the 3 neighborhoods separated by the nonexistent medieval wall (Chanca, Almedina, and City Center).

6 Civic curators of 3 art forms (fine arts, performative arts and audiovisual arts) formed by community groups, cultural managers, enablers and social engagers will produce cultural programs based on the new collective narrative of Almeria and promote cultural demand with the support of mediators.

3 nodes strategically located in the 3 neighborhoods will be set up as gathering and working space for civic curators. Each Civic Curator will produce 2 cultural activities, the first one (year 1) will be leaded by Cultural Managers and the second one (year 2) will be leaded by Community Groups.

• Almería City Council together with Almería's Provincial Council and Andalucía's Regional Governement;
• 1 NGO: Ibáñez Cosentino Arts Foundation;
• 1 education and training center: Municipal School for Music and The Arts;
• 1 higher education and research institution: University of Almería;
• 2 private companies: KUVER Audiovisual Productions; EPTISA Engineering;
• 1 SME: KHORA Urban Thinkers.

CAMINA will contribute to decrease negative perceptions towards other cultures or social groups at risk of exclusion, specially migrants and Roma people, by highlighting their contribution to the city’s past, present and future and building a common historic and cultural narrative.

CAMINA will also integrate urban deprived areas and contribute to decrease the insecurity perception of La Chanca and Almedina neighborhoods through a Cultural Circular Route (CCR). Based on the common culture narrative, CCR will connect valuable heritage and historical spaces with nodes and cultural programs built by Civic Curators.

3 cultural nodes (Doña Pakyta Museum, Katiuska Cinema, Mesón Gitano) located in the 3 neighborhoods will be regenerated as working spaces for Civic Curators. The cultural programs of Civic Curators will contribute to increase the number of cultural associations and people, especially at risk of exclusion, who participate in cultural activities.

• December 2020. Selection of Community Groups participants who will produce inclusive cultural activities as leisure alternatives and to attract non traditional public.
• March 2021.  Almeria’s Cultural Narrative will be developed and will be transmitted through a regenerated urban space and participative cultural programs.
• April 2021. Constitution of CAMINA’s Civic Curators. 6 Civic Curators will be constituted to promote cultural demand through participative cultural production. There will be 2 Civic Curators for each of 3 art forms: fine arts, performative arts and audiovisual arts.
• June 2021. Awarded team for design of Cultural Circular Route will be selected to design an intervention to connect neighborhoods, urban spaces and cultural nodes.
• March 2022. 6 Cultural projects lead by Cultural Managers within the Civic Curators, focused on the new cultural narrative and the city’s heritage will be designed and implemented
• July 2022. A circular itinerary that connects the three neighborhoods and the regeneration of three cultural spaces (nodes) to become gathering spaces to boost the re-emergence of Almeria’s cultural scene will be completed.
• March 2023. After one year of collaboration within Civic Curators and 6 cultural projects, Community Groups will design and implement 6 cultural projects supported by projects partners.