Gijon presents the Plan of Use and Management of Tabacalera

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The mayor of Gijón, Ana González, the manager of Divertia, Lara Martínez, and the director of the Municipal Foundation for Culture, Education and Popular University, Miguel Barrero, have presented on October 30, in the municipal Reception Hall the Plan of Uses and Management of Tabacalera Espacio de Cultura Contemporánea (TECC).

The document presents the results of a long work process and defines the recovery for cultural uses of the historic Cimavilla building and the construction of two annex buildings to turn them into the great cultural reference center of the city, home to the great festivals of municipal organization, epicenter of all municipal departments linked to cultural management and container of exhibition areas, multipurpose spaces, spaces for the performing arts, music, creation, a space for warehouses and municipal deposits.

Lara Martínez stated that the Use Plan is “the beginning of a process” and requires a “more complete form” in line with its character as “the cornerstone on which the comprehensive reordering of facilities and city management will revolve” and that it is already being worked on and will be completed in the coming months.

Ana González pointed out that today is “a very important day” in which “a different cultural proposal is unveiled that once again connects Gijón with what very dynamic and leading cities in the world of culture” and that opens “an opportunity for the redefinition of many things in the city” in the context of the municipal project to redefine all cultural facilities and its management model; a change in which Tabacalera will be “the cornerstone”, according to Lara Martínez.

The project deadlines foresee a first phase of 15 months for the adaptation of the Historic Building and another 15 for the construction of the two annexes, and the budget estimate does not foresee exceeding 20 million euros, including the investments that have already been made in the historic building; a figure below those allocated to this type of project for the 11 Tabacalera buildings recovered for similar uses in the rest of Spain, which have cost between 30 and more than 110 million euros with execution periods of 6 to 12 years.

For Lara Martínez, the meaning of the project for Tabacalera «is summed up in one sentence: a space for reencountering the history of the city, for reencountering current trends and commitment to the future of local and global society, through the value of the past and the building itself, and the present and the future through a space designed for citizen encounters”. It constitutes “the most emblematic cultural project in the city, the result of a strategic vision of Gijón in which cultural centers have to be an important part of people’s lives and proud emblems of the environment in which they are framed”.

Main photo credit: Pixabay