The Network of Museums for Equality accredits the Service and the museum centers of the Cabildo as new members

The Network of Museums for Equality (RMI) It began its journey on June 9, 2022 with the commitment to promote equality in museums and art centers. It is an organization driven by association of Women in the Visual Arts (MAV), made of more than 670 members coming from all the territories of the Spanish State, covering the various areas of the arts, including researchers, artists, curators, cultural managers, teachers, gallery owners, specialized journalists, directors, coordinators and technicians of art centers, editors, designers, critics, collectors, architects, etc.

The RMI works for equality from a gender perspective with an intersectional approach that encompasses other vulnerabilities. It ensures that it is constituted as a space for participation that promotes a committed, critical, diverse and inclusive culture that supports change and social innovation.

MAV Tool

The MAV Tool for Equality is an initiative developed by the Association of Women in the Visual Arts. It's a instrument conceived with the purpose of allowing museums and art centers to carry out a self-diagnosis regarding their commitment to equality and respect for diversity.

In order to improve this mechanism, the Museum Service of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria has made a series of suggestions to redesign the existing questionnaire. These recommendations seek to focus on fundamental aspects and enrich the questionnaire, making it more appropriate and comprehensive.

One of them is the one that stands out the importance of the gender perspective in budget management. "If we want to meet objectives regarding equal opportunities between women and men through investment, we must necessarily include this point in our evaluation," says the head of the service, Alicia Bolaños Naranjo.

Differentiate between the typology of museums, since not all face the same challenges; incorporate questions that allow museums and art centers to evaluate the impact of their programs and exhibitions on the local community, including the most disadvantaged sectors; digital accessibility or the evaluation of the effectiveness of actions undertaken for equality These are some of the proposals that the area that coordinates the network of island museums of the Cabildo de Gran Canaria has managed to incorporate into this valuable tool that is used at the national level.

Ensuring equality in culture

The involvement of the Insular Museum Service in monitoring the application of the Equality Law in its field of work goes back a long way. Last June, the area coordinated by Alicia Bolaños Naranjo presented the results of the first Report on the application of the Equality Law in the field of Culture in the island and municipal institutions of Gran Canaria.

He document, pioneer in the Canary Islands, proposed, among other issues, the promotion of creation of a Gender Equality Observatory at a regional level where all lines would be addressed, including culture, or, the possibility that the Department of Culture of the Government of the Canary Islands would establish, specifically for the autonomous territory, a Canarian Observatory of Gender Equality in Culture that follows in parallel the lines of work of the Observatory of Gender Equality in Culture of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, the insular head of Museums highlighted at that time.

«The conclusions of this report will allow us to have a starting point, unprecedented in the Canary Islands, that will serve to develop a cultural policy that truly complies with the principles promoted by the Organic Law of Equality," Alicia Bolaños also stated.

The Minister of Culture of the Cabildo of Gran Canaria, Guacimara Medina Pérez, takes the opportunity to emphasize, once again, “the importance of having a vision with a gender perspective in the area of ​​Culture. We work taking into account transversal policies, understanding the important contribution that Culture offers in different areas, including, of course, gender equality.

And it is that the more than 40 museums and art centers that make up the RMI With their membership, they acquire an active ethical commitment to contribute to reversing situations of inequality. To this end, they promote the use of diagnostic and self-diagnosis tools that allow for the identification of possibilities for improvement, and the promotion of continuous planning that integrates the notion of equality in plans, programs and projects. "We are united by the determined will to transform the museums and art centers of the Spanish State and Latin America, and turn them into more egalitarian, inclusive and democratic places," they express in their declaration of intent.