Sabadell will gain a new center dedicated to culture. After the contemporary art biennial Manifesta has shown that, when it's worthwhile, everyone moves to see exhibitions beyond the Catalan capital, the financial institution will concentrate its art collection in its hometown. The Banco Sabadell Foundation has reached an agreement with the city council to promote Sabadell Centre de Cultura, a facility that will be located in three buildings in Plaça del Gas, right in the center.
The project aims to rehabilitate Casa Grau and the annexed building to create a new space that will be filled with 500 works from the bank's art collection, focused on modern and contemporary Spanish art. This is outlined in the protocol presented this Monday by the mayor of Sabadell, Marta Farrés, and the president of the Banco Sabadell Foundation, Josep Oliu. The project has the support of the Department of Culture and the Barcelona Provincial Council.
According to the protocol, the foundation will make a financial contribution for the adaptation of Casa Grau and the annexed building. It will also facilitate the use of works from the collection. Specifically, it is expected that these will be the most valuable ones. For its part, the City Council will provide the buildings, but also museum collections from the Sabadell History Museum, made up of some 30,000 objects, including archaeological collections, and the Sabadell Art Museum, with 17,600 pieces by local and Catalan artists ranging from the early 19th century to the present day.
In the same square, there will be the future Textile History Museum, which will be located in the old Gas Museum, closed since 2018 and bought by the Sabadell City Council from Naturgy a few months ago for 3.2 million euros. This will house the collection of the Antoni de Montpalau Foundation, specialized in textiles with a collection of more than 50,000 objects, including clothing, hats, and shoes.