The mayor of La Laguna, Luis Yeray Gutiérrez, as president of the Commission for Education, Culture and Sports of the Group of World Heritage Cities of Spain, took part this Friday in Madrid in the presentation of the fourth edition of The Heritage Night , a unique cultural event in Europe, with a program of events that take place simultaneously in the 15 historic cities with the Unesco seal. The Instituto Cervantes has hosted the presentation of a program that includes the extraordinary opening of monuments or museums and activities for all audiences, with first-rate shows, with concerts such as those by Andrea Bocelli in Mérida or by Ainhoa Arteta in La Laguna.
Gutiérrez, as highlighted by the local Town Hall in a statement, has been in charge of presenting the numerous activities that will take place in the historic centers. “From 8:00 pm to early morning, heritage and cultural spaces will be open to the public for free, which will allow them to enjoy museums, palaces, churches, town halls and representative buildings, outside their normal hours,” he explained. “They will open the doors of their most emblematic treasures at night to give life to their historic centers. To fill them with cultural and leisure activities. So that they can be enjoyed by neighbors and visitors who will make their own an exceptional cultural heritage ”.
The Heritage Night is structured in three sections in the 15 cities: Open Heritage, with open doors of monuments and cultural spaces; Live Heritage, which presents a great cultural and leisure offer that will be distributed throughout its historic centers; and Scene Heritage, a festival and creation platform for dance in heritage spaces.
In addition, he added that “from the Department of Culture and Heritage of each city will organize, within strict security measures, a multitude of guided visits to the historic centers and hundreds of shows in the squares, streets and heritage spaces, such as concerts of choirs and instrumental groups of early music, conferences, exhibitions, poetry recitals, storytelling and clowns, puppets, audiovisual projections and videomappings. Local cultural groups will also play a prominent role, as our City Council supports the cultural fabric, and we will also have great figures such as Andrea Bocelli in Mérida or Ainoha Arteta in La Laguna ”.
The presentation ceremony featured an exhibition by the Lagunero dancer and choreographer Carmen Fumero, a preview of the performance that she will offer at the Heritage Night in the cloister of the former Santo Domingo convent in La Laguna.
Within the framework of the Heritage Scene Festival, the 15 pieces by the invited choreographers will be exhibited simultaneously, with 5 absolute premieres in 21 performances created especially for the heritage spaces of the 15 cities and which will be broadcast via streaming. through the Web. For yet another year, the artistic programming will be accompanied by participatory processes with local artists and volunteers and free workshops to invite dance, given by the invited choreographers.
The president of the Group of World Heritage Cities and Mayor of Mérida, Antonio Rodríguez Osuna, highlighted that “we are committed to boosting tourism through cultural exhibition projects in unique spaces. We are at the key moment of the tourist and cultural reactivation and the Heritage Cities want to continue being a national and international benchmark of safe culture. We are leaders in the enhancement of culture and World Heritage and we want to continue on this path hand in hand with creators, who are an essential factor in promoting cultural policies and the uniqueness of our heritage spaces in all artistic fields ” .
The Chairman of the Group gave the floor to the Chairman of Paradores, Pedro Saura, who recalled that “the Heritage Cities and Paradores represent the Spain Brand in the world and we are strategic partners, with a collaboration agreement that dates back to 2005 and continues Today with the aim of promoting cultural tourism and publicizing the heritage of the destinations that have accommodation on the Web. Proof of this is the involvement of Paradores in The Heritage Night on September 18, with activities and events that will allow you to enjoy our hotels and a unique cultural offer ”.
The Secretary General of the Cervantes Institute, Carmen Noguera Galilea, has underlined “the alliance of the Institute and the Group in the international projection of Spanish culture and historical heritage, which has allowed us to develop cultural activities and projects that are a magnificent complement to the work of projection of the Spanish language that the Institute develops abroad. Heritage Cities are a symbol of the best that our country has generated in the field of universal culture and that it generously offers to the rest of the world. The best proof of this is The Heritage Night ”.
For her part, the general director of Fine Arts of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, María Dolores Jiménez-Blanco, recalled that “the cooperation between the Ministry of Culture and Sports and the World Heritage Cities Group dates back to 1998. Since Therefore, the activities that have been carried out jointly have been aimed at enhancing their reciprocal collaboration through a series of commitments that have materialized in multiple projects aimed at the joint defense of the historical heritage of the cities declared World Heritage in Spain, as well as in the promotion of its cultural offer. Among them, the Heritage Night stands out, an event that, year after year, is becoming a benchmark for all of us who enjoy culture in all its aspects and diversity of expressions ”.´
The general director of the Unesco World Heritage Center, Mechtild Rössler, has intervened in the presentation through a video recorded in Spanish and has confirmed for the second consecutive year the support of the Unesco World Center for Heritage Night, incorporating the broadcast from its website so that it can be followed live from any country in the world and will also be broadcast through its social networks. The World Heritage Associations of Cuba, Mexico and Peru will also broadcast the event through their platforms.