Culture

Progress through culture

Culture is one of man’s essential dimensions. On this we construct the signs of our identity, both those that define us individually and those that link us to others, while its capacity to stimulate human creativity provides us, through its different forms (art, literature, etc.) an inexhaustible and enriching resource that helps us to face the complexities of existence and to better understand our environment and ourselves.

Since its creation, Fundación MAPFRE has focused on cultural activities and projects. In this respect, our proposals are mainly aimed at the artistic sphere, with an extensive exhibition program both in the visual arts and photography and a wide range of educational activities directed at educational centers and families. In this way, with time, material resources and, above all, a great deal of enthusiasm, we contribute through cultural outreach to our main objective: to give back to society.

At your side wherever you are

With the intention of ensuring our activities reach all possible recipients, we do our utmost to promote the creation and outreach of our projects through the web and social media. We also publish printed catalogs of the exhibitions, and in the majority of cases, in several languages, in order to ensure that we reach a wider public.

One million visitors to our website endorse our efforts. We now have more than 284,000 followers on  Facebook, more than 60,000 on Twitter and more than 50,000 on Instagram. We are creating a community and its members are the best ambassadors of our work.

We also develop specific website projects, such as the project dedicated to publicizing Fundación MAPFRE’s art collections, which currently include over 2,000 pieces, a remarkable institutional collection of drawings, etchings and photography.

The art of displaying art

We have organized more than five hundred exhibitions over a thirty year period; over many years of effort we have wanted to introduce our audience to the profound transformation that artistic creation experienced in the last decades of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century, when a succession of radical changes established the way art would express itself in the modern age. In this way, we have fulfilled one of our principal aspirations: to establish Fundación MAPFRE as an institution with activities of general interest to society due to the way in which its program supplements the offerings of other public and private cultural agents.

Furthermore, in 2006 we began to exhibit contemporary artistic photography, an area in which we are currently delighted to enjoy the international recognition of both institutions and professionals. Our activity in this field focuses on holding wide-ranging retrospective exhibitions of the main protagonists of 20th century photography, as well as exhibitions of current and highly-acclaimed photographers.

With our exhibition spaces in Madrid and Barcelona, we pursue a single aim: to let everyone experience art.

In Madrid, Sala Recoletos 23 has a surface area of approximately 1,000 m², and offers a regular program of visual arts and photography, with three seasons a year. The fine arts exhibitions are ambitious international projects, usually in collaboration with major museums around the world, where the work of the great masters of painting and sculpture of the period covered by the exhibitions, from Impressionism and its precedents to the mid-20th century, from Manet and Cézanne to Chagall, Picasso and Giacometti, is ever-present. Our commitment to photography began in 2009, with the dual aim of disseminating the work of both established masters (Walker Evans, Cartier-Bresson, Lisette Model, Paul Strand, etc.) and contemporary photographers who are already widely recognized (Fazal Sheikh, Ana Malagrida, Lynne Cohen, Stephen Shore and Josef Koudelka, among many others).

This commitment took a significant step forward in the fall of 2020, when KBr Fundación MAPFRE, a project dedicated exclusively to photography, was inaugurated.

With two exhibition spaces, a bookstore, an area for educational activities, a multipurpose auditorium and a carefully selected and extensive program (twelve exhibitions a year), the KBr has already become a national and international reference in photography. The exhibition schedule upholds the two main axes of our program (great masters of the 20th century and great contemporary photographers), but adds other new and interesting regular activities, such as the one dedicated to the photographic collections kept in Catalan institutions and the exhibition that each year is dedicated to a selection of students from the leading schools of photography in Barcelona.

Our collections

Our collections are the result of years of work in which we have directed our gaze onto artwork on paper. We are convinced that drawings capture the first and most sincere inspiration of an artist. In 2007, we incorporated photography into the collection, owing to its essential role as a language of the 20th century, and its unique ability to document and capture reality. The Fundación MAPFRE collections can be viewed on the website.

Interested in dissemination

It is our wish to disseminate our activities and take them to the public in general. That is why, since 2004 the educational department has been offering a wide and varied program of activities based on the exhibition schedule, aimed at children and young people, both for school groups and families. We offer two permanent activities in our exhibitions: workshop visits and dynamic visits.

The workshop-visits focus on the analysis and study of 4 or 5 works, which through conversations and games facilitate an understanding and critical analysis of art. After visiting the exhibition, a creative project is suggested for the workshop.

Dynamic visits to exhibitions encourage dialog with works of art, and provide tools for learning, sparking interest and the enjoyment of culture.

We also cater for groups with special needs

Our educational department is particularly focused on facilitating access and visits, and carrying out activities for people with special needs. These inclusive and specifically designed activities are adapted to the public’s requirements.

We provide audio-descriptions to people with visual impairment, through audio-guides for our exhibitions.