Catalonia’s athenaeums look towards the future

Catalonia’s network of private cultural clubs known as athenaeums (ateneus in Catalan) are rethinking their future role by adapting to the new realities of society, including encouraging the participation of more women. This is one of the main issues under discussion in the 6th Congrés d’Ateneus de Catalunya, which opened yesterday, a decade since the last congress was held. Over the next few months, a series of debates and roundtables all over the country, organised by the Federació d’Ateneus de Catalunya (FAC), will see an expected 100,000 members of athenaeums taking part in some 10,000 different activities.

To encourage participation, the FAC has launched the platform, participa.ateneus.cat, where all sorts of proposals for activities can be made. Yet the first thing up for debate, according to cultural manager Pep Montes at the inauguration, is that there is a lot of work still do. “The athenaeums need willing public involvement. Without a willingness to influence public opinion, the athenaeums are condemned to irrelevance,” he said before reciting a list of conditions needed for success: to be disruptive, ambitious, to propose ideas, share knowledge, take advantage of the talent of members, and to detect and attract people, among others.