The Government of the Balearic Islands and the Toni Catany Foundation have signed a protocol for the start-up and inauguration of the International Photography Centre before 15 October of this year.
This was announced by the Minister of the Presidency, Public Function and Equality, Mercedes Garrido; the Minister of European Funds, University and Culture, Miquel Company, and the President of the Toni Catany Foundation, Miquel Bezares, who signed the collaboration protocol.
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In this way, the Government is committed to the immediate opening before the end of the year of cultural space of reference in the field of photography to preserve and disseminate the artistic legacy of Toni Catany and to contribute to alleviating the deficit of cultural facilities in the Balearic Islands in the field of the audiovisual arts.
According to Mercedes Garrido, “we are beginning to see the fruit of so many years of hard work because at last, the public can have within their reach the magnificent work of a Mallorcan artist who made history and whose legacy we want to continue by making it available to everyone”.
For his part, Miquel Company stressed that “the Toni Catany International Photography Centre will be incorporated into the network of cultural infrastructures of the Government of the Balearic Islands, will house the photography centre of reference in the autonomous community and will function as a facility for interpreting the work of the Mallorcan photographer”.
Along with the launch of the centre, it has been agreed to carry out a programme of inauguration events and to open its spaces to the general public. Specifically, there will be an exhibition of works by a photographer of international prestige, a representative exhibition of Toni Catany’s work, a communication campaign for the centre aimed at publicising the inaugural events and the artistic content that will be exhibited, and a programme of guided tours. These exhibitions may remain open to the public, if appropriate, after the inauguration of the centre.
Finally, the three parties have undertaken to speed up the work to determine how the centre will be managed so that it can be run efficiently and effectively. In any case, this is a matter that will be agreed upon before the opening in October.
The new facility will conserve the author’s archive and collection, consisting of 100,000 of his slides and negatives and 2,000 of his printed photographs, as well as nearly 300 works by contemporary photographers from his private collection and the photographic collection of Tomàs Monserrat (Llucmajor, 1873-1944), old cameras and a photography library.
The signing ceremony was also attended by the Director-General of Coordination, Relations with Parliament, Rights and Diversity, Isabel Castro, and the Director-General of Culture, Catalina Solivellas. The Toni Catany Foundation was also represented by its director, Antoni Garau, and its secretary, Lluís Segura.