Involvement, commitment, dedication, dedication, motivation. None of these words fits easily with the work carried out by José Antonio Rovira in front of the Department of Culture of the Generalitat. Rovira was the option chosen by Carlos Mazón in the summer of 2024 to replace Vicente Barrera, who left office by order of the national leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal. Since then, numerous public and private managers – many of them at the ideological opposite of the former vice president and former bullfighter – have ended up missing Barrera's attitude compared to that shown by his successor.
From the beginning it was clear that the popular politician did not feel particularly enthusiastic about the cultural responsibility that the then president added to the already extensive powers he had in Education, Work and Universities. Maybe his wallet was too heavy for him. Two months after his appointment, in his first appearance in Les Corts to present his strategic lines for Valencian culture, he stressed that his “axes” would be the “conservation of heritage”, the promotion of public-private collaboration and the defense of the diffuse “open culture”, a concept vague enough to avoid demands or reproaches.
More than non-compliance, what The Valencian cultural sector reproaches the former councilor for not having acted as such, at least publicly.. “Although perhaps if I had been more active it would have been worse,” jokes a veteran cultural manager. In Valencia he has barely been seen setting foot in the IVAM, the Palau de les Arts, the Center del Carme, the Museum of Fine Arts or the Teatro Principal. And he also did not frequent the cultural spaces of Alicante when he spent weekends in that province to be with his family.
Rovira has also not been present at the meetings that, with greater or lesser tension, have been held by associations and professionals in the sector with the department. His distance from concerns The cultural sphere was evident this week, when, in the Congressional commission on dana, he admitted not knowing what the association of Valencian theater businessmen Avetid was, one of the several cultural entities with which the department has burned bridges in recent times.
The damage that the dana caused in auditoriums, bookstores, workshops and private studios also failed to minimally activate its public commitment to the sector. Even the light of such a media project as the future Sorolla exhibition of the Hispanic Society at the Palacio de las Comunicaciones managed to attract him, not even to appear in the photos.
Has the Ministry of Culture been paralyzed, then? Not quite. At the institutional level – and presumably also at the management level – the regional secretary, Pilar Tébar has exercised a kind of acting ministry, relying on general directors and intermediate positions.
Controversial investments
During Rovira's stage, the department has maintained vetoes and cuts to activities and entities considered “Catalanist”, starting with the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua, and has also maintained some controversial investments such as aid to the Toro de Lidia Foundation already promoted by Barrera. It has also continued with the budget cuts applied to the IVAM, the Consorci de Museus or the Institut Valencià de Cultura, although this year it had the “alibi” of investments aimed at alleviating the effects of the damage.
Which What the ministry under the ownership of Rovira has resolved is the lack of direction in the IVAM and the Consortium of Museums inherited from his predecessor, and has completed the IVC organizational chart. But in the latter case, the disconnection between the institution and the professionals in the sector seems very difficult to repair.
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