ALZAR. Cultural mediation network

Raising our voice together (Alzar) is one of the three nodes of the MAR platform.

Alzar is an informal network made up of cultural agents of all kinds (large and small cultural institutions, alternative institutions or independent groups, autonomous mediators...) interested in the intersection of art + education and cultural mediation as a driver of change in the current cultural model. Alzar intends to structure an open, plural, diverse and committed community of agents that summons us beyond our own and respective comfort zones or known territories to meet, get to know each other, share knowledge, take care of each other and, why not… raise our voices together.

Alzar is organized around three work groups:

New institutions, with the aim of reflecting on and analyzing new ways of understanding the role of cultural institutions in society, the way of relating to their context and with other agents, the links with citizenship, etc., as well as promoting the adoption of these new models.

Mediation policies, which works to promote relevant actions with respect to issues related to the legal and material conditions of mediation both in institutions and in cultural alter-institutions (requirements, contracts, collective agreements...), in order to fight against the general precarious situation of this group.

Archive and memory, in which file processing methodologies and memory production are systematized in relation to education and mediation, in order to promote the integration of these methodologies in cultural institutions and alternative organizations.

The debates, reflections and conclusions of the Alzar network nourish the Caja digital archive and are presented publicly at different times throughout the year.

Participants

New Institutionalities group:

Nekane Aramburu. Cultural manager, museologist and theoretical essayist. It develops strategies to revitalize tangible and intangible heritage and new models of education/mediation based on sustainability and good practices for cultural projects, art centers and museums.

Virginia Martinez. Actress and cultural manager. Co-founder of Imaquinaria, a cooperative that develops artistic projects for social transformation, and Harinera ZGZ, a project co-managed between cultural agents, the neighborhood fabric and the Zaragoza City Council.

Amparo Moroño. Responsible for the Culture Program of the Valle del Jerte Association of Municipalities and collaborating professor of Art and Education at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya.

Rachel Rivera. Professional violinist, managing director of the Fundación Orquesta y Coro de la Comunidad de Madrid and member of the Advisory Committee of the Castilla y León Symphony Orchestra.

Fernando Sanchez-Cabezudo. Cultural manager, director, actor and set designer. He is part of the management of the National Dramatic Center (CDN) as advisor and artistic coordinator.

Sara Martin Terceño. Independent cultural mediator. She develops mediation projects as an educator around contemporary artistic practices.

Mediation policies group:

Jara Blanco. She is dedicated to research and cultural mediation through the design and implementation of educational activities. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Cultural Mediators of Madrid (AMECUM), where she produces and coordinates public activities to strengthen the profession and its visibility.

Carlos Lane. General Director of MagmaCultura, a business platform that develops its activity in the fields of culture, education and tourism.

Javier Rodrigo Montero. Art educator and researcher-coordinator of Transductores, an interdisciplinary platform that carries out research and mediation projects based on three main axes: collective pedagogies, collaborative artistic practices and modes of intervention in the public sphere.

Bethlehem Sola Pizarro. Researcher and mediator. Professor of Art Education at the Faculty of Education of the University of León. Founder and co-director —together with the artist Chus Domínguez— of the Experimental Audiovisual Anthropology Laboratory (LAAV_), a transdisciplinary space for research and creation with communities.

Archive and memory group:

Cristian Añó. He co-directs Sinapsis, a platform for research and production of contextual cultural practices that are developed with collaborative methodologies. She is in charge of the editorial coordination of Poliédrica, a magazine and digital archive focused on the dissemination of art and school projects, cultural mediation and community artistic practices.

Francisca Blanco. General coordinator of Medialab-Matadero. Previously working as part of the Intermediae curatorial team. She investigates art as social praxis and its relationship with the new forms of cultural production, areas on whichs he writes in specialized publications and on which she advises both public and private cultural entities.

Jordi Ferreiro. Artist and educator. His work explores institutional mediation and art as a tool to intervene and change the bureaucratic spaces responsible for managing knowledge, building what we understand as culture, and regulating our way of understanding the world.

David G. Ferreiro. Creator of Imago Bubo • Rural Collective, a project that seeks to keep popular traditions and knowledge alive, and recover the rural and cultural heritage that surrounds the place it inhabits. He coordinates El Cubo Verde, a state network that brings together art initiatives linked to rural environments, whose main objective is to promote the encounter and exchange of knowledge between the spaces of creation that question and promote alternatives to belonging to the habitat.

Natxo Rodríguez Arkaute. Artist, researcher and teacher at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of the Basque Country/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (UPV/EHU), where he is also responsible for the doctorate in Research in Contemporary Art and a member of the AKMEKA research group. Art, Culture and Media.

Patricia Sorroche Quesada. Since 2005 she has worked at the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), first as a project assistant for the Department of Temporary Exhibitions and, since 2014, in the Department of Logistics and Registration, which is in charge of managing the Collection from the museum. She also develops research and curatorship.