Sitges, the new centre for creativity

Sitges (ACN).- The Sitges City Hall presented the project ‘QUALIA Sitges: Creative Space of the Mediterranean’ on Thursday. The project aims to convert the city into an international referent for creativity. The project will include a new 100,000 square metre campus with education centres, businesses and organisations dedicated to art and creativity. The new campus will be located in the centre of Sitges. Sitges’ mayor Jordi Baijet said that the objective is that students, workers and future investigators of the centre could “interact” with the city and “turn Sitges into a space for creativity”. One of the main goals of the project is the creation of the 'Barcelona Institute of Performing Arts'.

The Barcelona Institute of Performing Arts (BIPA) will be a university dedicated to stage arts. BIPA has been modelled off of the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, a centre created by The Beatle’s former member, Paul McCartney. BIPA’s director will be Giles Auckland-Lewis, who has been working on the Liverpool project until now. According to Auckland-Lewis, the university will be “first-rate” on an international scale. He added that a number of diverse businesses from around the world have been interested in the project since “before it even started”.

QUALIA Sitges intends to integrate the areas of art, technology, economy and the territory to convert Sitges into an international referent for creativity. Sitges Mayor Jordi Baijet explained that the project “started 6 years ago” with the goal of making the city “economically and socially competitive” by attracting creative talent while also “respecting” their tourism-based economy.

4 axes

QUALIA is made up of four strategic plans: the Mediterranean Space; Sitges, Town of Festivals; the Liceu of Sitges, and the Campus QUALIA Sitges. The first plan, the Mediterranean Space, has the objective of preserving the historical, architectural and cultural aspects of Sitges by invigorating them in an artistic way. Some projects currently in the works for the Espai de la Mediterrània include the reformation of the maritime façade of Sitges, the opening of Casa Bacardi (where the family who founded the world-known brand of alcohol used to live in) and the Museu d'Art Contemporani de la Fundació Stämpfli.

The second part of the project, Sitges, Town of Festivals, aims to provide a quality artistic offer all year round. According to Baijet, “every two months” they will have a festival “about a different artistic discipline”. In addition, the project will include the construction of a new space for stage arts and audiovisuals that can hold up to 800 people.

The Liceu of Sitges will offer projects and educational programmes about creativity, art and culture to the city. It will hold the Municipal School of Music, Dance and Theatre and the Municipal School of Visual Arts and Audiovisuals.

The QUALIA campus will take up some 100,000 square metres in the Sitges city centre. It will be located between the Sitges Centre of Design and the Can Robert Park. The campus will include parks, public spaces, education centres and other spaces dedicated to innovative artistic, cultural and entrepreneurial projects. The campus buildings will be designed using the principles of ecosustainability.

The QUALIA Sitges project has an investment of over 150 million euros, in which 110 are designated for the Campus QUALIA. Businesses that wish to locate themselves on the campus will have administrative concession periods of 50 years.