The Friends of the Girona Art Museum is celebrating its 30th anniversary with two exhibitions

On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Friends of the Girona Art Museum, two exhibitions are presented at the Girona Urban Property Chamber and at Espai 22.

The first will take place from April 1 to 30 in the Chamber of Urban Property, with the entire Fund provided by the artist Montse Pla, of the Private Foundation Land and Trees on June 9, 2019, 32 works on paper such as etchings, engravings, screen printing and aquatints. In this exhibition, visitors can find the works of renowned figures such as Modest Cuixart, Josep Grau Garriga, Josep Guinovart, Manel Marzo-Mart, Assumpció Mateu and Josep Uclés, among others. You can also see works by writers such as Tísner, Maria Barbal, Ana Maria Matute, Salvador Pàniker, etc ...

According to sources from the Friends of the Girona Art Museum, “the main objective of this exhibition is to present the Friends of the Art Museum Fund to members and visitors and also to thank, in a very special way, the donation of the artists who for so many years they have collaborated generously with our association ”.

On the other hand, a second exhibition entitled Original Serial Copies of the Friends has been scheduled, which will also open on April 1 and can be visited until the 30th of the same month, in Espai 22 and which consists of 26 original serial copies from the donation made each year by a different artist to the association. It must be said that an original serial copy is made of the original and distributed to members on the day of the Friends' Day.

Visiting hours for these two exhibitions are from 4pm to 7pm Monday to Friday.

A Fixed Space and a Museum of Contemporary Art in Girona

Since January, Raimonda Coll has been named president of the AMDA.
She has a PhD in Art History and is very familiar with the fabric of the city's painters as she has been organizing many art exhibitions in Girona.

According to the current president, “one of the most important challenges we are pursuing from the Friends is to look for new spaces for exhibitions as we have not been in the Territorial Services on Carrer Ciutadans for a long time, and to counteract this with the Chamber of Property Urbana de Girona and Espai 22 in Llibreria 22 give us their spaces on time to hold temporary exhibitions of our artists ”. Unfortunately, Coll points out that "we do not have a fixed space and I call on the institutions to be able to do the activities that we do at AMDA." Another of the objectives pursued by the new president for 25 years is the creation of a Museum of Contemporary Art in Girona, since according to her “Figueres and Olot already have it, but we have the Cultural Center Bòlit de Girona, but it is not contemporary as we are missing exhibitions of works from the 40s and 50s, we can not see the work of Niebla, or the work of Torres Monsó, or the pieces of the time of Fàbregas or Colomer, nor work of the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s ”.

Raimonda commented that from AMDA its function is to support the management of the Girona Art Museum and I think that this will change over time as we are realizing that "new dynamics are entering". The main function of the Friends "is to buy work to fill the Girona Art Museum and I take this opportunity to tell all the entities in Girona that our function is mainly as an intermediary" said Coll. The Friends have recently bought two works by the artist Emili Vilà.

On the subject of the activities scheduled for this 30th anniversary, the member of the AMDA, Joan Gaya, reported that a series of three conferences will be held, such as the dialogue between Joan Surroca and Eugènia Cros, or the dialogue between Joaquim Nadal and Jordi Dalmau, and in the autumn, Josep Calatayud will talk about the prospects and strategies for the future between the relationship between the Girona Art Museum and the AMDA.

There have also been a series of two exhibitions this April that serve to "show the heritage that our friends have been accumulating over the last few years" and on April 29 at 18:00 there is a theater performance by Pollock and Cia at the Sant Narcís Civic Center which is scheduled with the aim of vindicating the ability of art to reconnect people who have psychological problems with the real world.

The second teacher, specifically in June, is scheduled for the annual “friend of honor” party, which consists of the appointment of an honorary friend to a member of the organization in order to recognize the his career, and this year is expected to be Jordi Dalmau. Also noteworthy is the traditional celebration of the Christmas concert at the Josep Irla Auditorium in Girona.

A total of 642 people are members of the MDA, but according to Gaya "we would like to reach 6,000" and insists that the membership fee is very modest and we need this money for the organization to work. We also try to convince young people to come in, rejuvenate the Board, etc ... ”

He explained that in addition to the income from membership fees, there is also a great collaboration "that can not be valued with money" with many of the public and private entities that participate with the Friends such as the House of Culture, the La Mercè Cultural Center, Bookshop 22, the Girona Urban Property Chamber, etc ...

Gaya sums up that what we want to achieve is "to make a cultural family together that feels united around a great project."

Also noteworthy is the agreement reached with the Girona Booksellers Guild, as a sample of an artist will be held next November to link the book or subject with his sculpture or ceramics, and will be exhibited. in bookstores. The Friends are currently participating with the GEiEG in the quick painting competition and are currently working with the Girona Festival temps de flors 2022, as two sculptors will be in charge of proposing the exhibition for the next edition of the festival.

It should be remembered that the AMDA was inaugurated in 1992 and its founder was Joan Surroca, who was the number 1 member of the association. Surroca, who is a very traveling and restless person and has visited many museums around the world, realized a few years ago that behind the big foreign museums there was a citizen organization, some friends of the museum, who had become a association to support him especially to provide his fund so that this one acquires work. With this idea of "more social collaboration in the Art Museum" came the idea of forming this association.