The culture department has devised a plan to get schools to fill cinemas in the mornings

MADRID – In an interview with EFE, Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun announced a plan to fill schools with cinemas in the mornings, a move aimed on the one hand at creating a cinema-loving culture among schoolchildren and on the other hand at helping exhibitors.

The Minister of Culture recalled that this initiative is being successfully implemented in France and has entrusted the development of a pilot project to Ignasi Camós, director of the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA).

The “École et Cinéma” program was implemented in 1994 in the primary schools of the neighboring countries (six to nine years old) and was expanded to kindergarten (five to six years old) in 2022. It consists of students attending at least three screenings per course, one per semester, at a cost of three euros each (this year, for example, they include the recent Wallace and Gromit or The Adventures of Prince Ahmed, from 1926).

This is one of the projects considered by the minister, aimed at bringing culture closer to all the people, all the communities and towns, and one of his obsessions, confesses the 42-year-old minister, who comes from Barcelona and arrives in November 2023. As a member of the ruling coalition of Pedro Sánchez.

Integrated Cultural Infrastructure Program (Pitec)

To this end, it is also preparing other important initiatives for the country’s next general budget. One of these is the development of the Spanish Integrated Cultural Infrastructure Plan (Pitec), “to map all cultural infrastructure to ensure that every citizen in Spain has a theatre, cinema, etc. within five kilometres,” he explained.

He said that based on this map of all regional, municipal and state cultural facilities, “we will guide investments over the next year” to break down geographic barriers that prevent the general public from accessing the arts.

Regarding the perhaps more fundamental economic obstacle, Urtasson assured that further initiatives are being studied within the budget framework, following the success of the cultural bonus (400 euros for those aged 18 and over) and the cinema for seniors (2 euros for tickets on Tuesdays for those over 65).

“It is true that the question of overcoming income barriers bothers me,” admitted the Minister of Culture, who took the opportunity to encourage young people who have not yet done so to apply for help in purchasing cultural products.