- Music lovers and painting enthusiasts will unite thanks to the new collaboration agreement signed between the Friends programs of the Reina Sofía School of Music and the Thyssen Museum.
- In the current landscape of cultural patronage in Spain, private micro-patrons, or “Friends,” play an increasingly prominent role in the financing of cultural institutions.
- In a context of growing cultural consumption, the union between the arts opens a new path towards greater transversality among the audiences of the different artistic disciplines.
Madrid, October 29, 2019.- The Reina Sofía School of Music, which trains more than 150 young professional musicians each year, and the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, an art gallery with one of the most important collections of paintings assembled in the 20th century, have signed an agreement to establish bridges between their Friends Programs. As a first collaboration, the Friends of the School will benefit from private visits to the Museum, and the Friends of the Thyssen will have access to tickets to concerts organized by the School.
The “Friends,” micro-patrons of culture
The Friends of the Reina Sofía School of Music program, implemented since its creation in 1991, brings together music lovers and enthusiasts and offers them the possibility of collaborating with the institution’s educational project. Their contributions help to
The Friends of the Thyssen program allows access to free, guided private tours of the permanent collection, attending courses, trips or conferences, among other advantages. Joining the program creates an emotional bond between the associates and the art gallery, which was reflected in the support they demonstrated in the micro-patronage campaign launched by the Museum in 2018 to finance the restoration of one of its Canalettos (The Piazza San Marco in Venice).
Thanks to the new tax benefits for micro-patronage, introduced in the Patronage Law in 2014, private donors have the possibility of deducting 75% of their contributions up to 150 euros. This tax framework has boosted the Friends programs of cultural institutions, which today play a very important role in the financing of culture.
Transversality in the arts
In a social context in which cultural consumption tends to grow (according to the results of the Survey of Cultural Habits and Practices in Spain 2018-2019 published by the Ministry of Culture and Sports, interest in museums, exhibitions and art galleries has increased by about 7.3 percentage points compared to the previous year, representing 46.7% of the population; and the attachment to classical music concerts has also increased from 8.6% to 9.4% of the population), it is a great opportunity to create bridges between the plastic arts and music for the benefit of all.
This collaboration between both loyalty programs will offer new experiences to members and is a true reflection of the transversality that exists between cultural disciplines today.
The Friends of the Thyssen will have the opportunity to discover the concerts of the Reina Sofía School of Music, which programs more than 350 concerts a year and is aimed at all audiences through its various cycles in its own auditorium in the Plaza de Oriente (cycle Da Camera with string quartets and wind groups; cycle Afterwork in which classical music dialogues with other genres; cycle Fun Classics for families, among others) and in the National Auditorium (cycle The Ascending Generation, with the most outstanding young performers of the School). For their part, the Friends of the Reina Sofía School of Music will have access to exclusive visits to the Museum, which in addition to its permanent collection of nearly a thousand works that trace the history of Western painting from the 13th to the 20th century, offers temporary exhibitions of very varied themes and genres.
