In the conversation about Patronage, beyond financing, convened at Casa Seat by The New Barcelona Post, Ainhoa Grandes, Josep Lagares and Eloi Planes agreed on an idea that may seem like an easy headline, but which has an almost Socratic depth: we can all be patrons. However, for wanting to be power, it is necessary for power (individual, collective and institutional) to also want it.
Planes, as president of the Catalunya Cultura Foundation, summarized it thus: "Being a patron requires accompaniment from the cradle." From home, from school, from society. Because if you have never been told that helping culture, research or the community is also a way of investing in the future, you will hardly know how to do it naturally later. And yes, here we have a pending subject, as a country.
Lagares, vice-president of the Metalquimia Foundation, contributed the tangible dimension: that of those who understand that the return of what is earned can be collective and that social impact does not have to be linked to great fortunes. Because patronage can be of money, yes, but also of time, of ideas, of shared energy. And, speaking of sharing, in the room, among the public, he was accompanied by Dr. Argimon, who, together with Dr. Clotet, and with Lagares and other promoters, are advancing in cutting-edge research on Alzheimer's.
Ainhoa Grandes, for her part, with the clarity that has made her an authorized voice in this field, also as president of the MACBA Foundation, rounded off the idea with a demystification as explicit as it is necessary: you don't have to be rich to be a patron. You have to be aware that we live in society. And you have to want to contribute to it. And to do so you don't need to be a millionaire. Perhaps that is why Planes picked up the idea on the fly and launched a provocative proposal: to find a new word, one that frees the action of patronage from the elitist burden that the term carries. We don't know if we will find that alternative word, but perhaps, in the meantime, we can find more patrons.
Because France has already overtaken us (turning the tables in just two decades), thanks to a strategy that has managed to involve the public and the private, the people and the metropolis. And because there no one looks askance at those who make money, but rather at how they put it into circulation to make society grow.
So yes, we can all be patrons. We just need to believe it. And that, at least for one night, like the one shared with Josep, Ainhoa and Eloi this week at Casa Seat, we let ourselves be infected by that civilizing faith that has something of politics, much of culture and even a touch of poetry.