Investing in culture in Formentera

The president of the Formentera Island Council, Jaume Ferrer, signed today a collaborative accord with Raquel Guasch, president of the Obra Cultural Balear de Formentera, regarding cultural events programming in Formentera this year. The objective behind the accord is to promote participation – and this, whenever possible, of the active sort – by island residents in an array of activities that contribute to the discovery of Formentera's cultural heritage.

The agreement establishes the provision of funding for events planning. The majority of the activities to be given funding have in fact already occurred, one of them being the Primavera de cultura (Cultural Spring), an annually-held series of activities that includes book presentations, conferences, round table discussions and poetry readings. Another programme to benefit from this assistance is the selection of Catalan language classes directed at the general population and intended to complement the courses already provided by institutions like the Escola d'Adults (School for Adults) or the Servei d'Assessorament Lingüístic (Linguistic Assessment Service) of the Formentera Council. Likewise, publications that target the promotion of culture as well as historical and natural heritage in Formentera, advisory tasks and one-off investigative projects are all examples of activities that might correspond with the work of the Obra Cultural Balear de Formentera (OCBF), and as such, are projects that can receive funding under the accord with the Council.

In this respect, the Formentera Island Council has on various occasions requested the OCBF's technical counsel for historical and cultural projects. This was the case with the study of symbols administered by the Council in 2007, the proposal to expand the Formentera's urban nomenclature (2009) as well as the current study on the island's network of roads.

Among the objectives of OCBF are a promotion of the use of Catalan in public contexts, to stand as a sign of identity in all aspects of political, administrative, cultural, economic and social affairs. Another is to promote linguistic standardisation in all areas of the public administration, so that these entities can in turn facilitate the integration of recently-arrived citizens into the language, culture and society of Formentera.

The Formentera Council puts forth 7,000€ in support of the activities proposed by the OCBF, the same figure as last year's.

Obra Cultural Balear de Formentera                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            A project of Francesc de B. Moll, OCBF was founded on the island in 1977 as a delegation of the cultural and civic association created in Mallorca in 1962. Since its creation the association has worked to recover and maintain traditional local culture, to promote the study and use of Catalan, public service and awareness of important social and cultural issues. It is viewed by the residents of Formentera as a forerunner in the work to recover and promote local island patrimony.

Moreover, after several years of halted activity, the OCBF has resumed the publication of works of local interest with the collection Llibres de l'Obra. Rondalles i Contalles de Formentera, Obra Cultural Balear de Formentera, a work commemorating 30 years of work by the OCBF, and Els Diaris de Guerra, are all publications that have been born of the project.