what is La Escocesa
La Escocesa is an artist-led contemporary visual arts organisation and residency space managed collectively through the artists’ association ‘Associació d’Idees EMA’ and only accesible by anual open calls.
We focus on supporting artists and cultural agents, offering workspaces and resources for the development of their projects. We provide studios and workshops for over 30 resident artists, alongside a free public programme of events, open calls and training opportunities.
As a space inhabited by the artistic community, we focus not only on the production and creation of works, but also on the common generation of knowledge, networks of care and new ways of building and practising cultural institutions. The associative nature of the centre enables the active participation of the artists, generating an horizontal collective structure through which the centre is managed.
La Escocesa is located in an old textile factory that was recovered by a group of artists in the late 1990s. In 2007, La Escocesa became one of the ICUB’s (Institute of Culture of the Barcelona City Council) Creative Factories. In addition to their support, we also receive funding by the Generalitat and other public and private international entities.
As a feminist institution, our values arise from an intersectional*, emancipatory, cooperative and inclusive position, which advocates for sustainability, experimentation, collaboration and the development of community artistic projects. We understand our values not only as a series of statements but as commitments that must be put into practice through a collective process of constant learning and reflection.
La Escocesa uses gender neutral pronoun for all its communications as a way of emphasising our commitment to non-exclusionary feminism.
our main commitments are:
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Work from and through care, exercising and promoting good practices.
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Provide affordable workspaces for artists.
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Generate a residency program providing them with support and accompaniment.
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Launch open calls for projects of various characteristics, which support artistic research and experimentation.
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Generate links and alliances with the neighbourhood and the community fabric of the city.
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Continue working in alliances with art centres and local and international cultural agents, promoting exchanges and the generation of related networks.
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Work on a comprehensive access plan and start implementing the necessary changes and training to become an accessible institution.
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Consolidate horizontal and collaborative institutionalisation, carrying out an intersectional protocol that can function both as an internal guide for the centre, and also shared and replicated by similar groups and organisations in other contexts.
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Work on a sustainable institutional (practice) model that covers the needs of the institution, both at an economic and human level, contributing to the promotion of biodiversity and care for the environment.
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Question and challenge cis-hetero-patriarchal extractivist neoliberalism, white supremacy and exclusionary, colonial and ableist systems. We understand this as continuous work and we see the institution as a framework where this process has to be instigated and supported.
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Do not allow, in any case or circumstance, sexist, xenophobic, LGTBIQ+ phobic, speciesist, able-bodied, classist, ageist, religious intolerance or other forms of discrimination.
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Implement real transparency and generate porous structures that are in continuous review and transformation, including these commitments.
Moving away from the 'new institutionalism' as an abstract theory, from management conceived in a generic way and from artistic practice as a story embedded in the history of universal art, La Escocesa thinks of itself from the 'situated practice', conceiving the institution as the set of a series of bodies embodied and located in a sociopolitical context within a specific historical moment; a diverse community within a historic architectural structure in a neighbourhood in constant transformation.
*Intersectional is a term initially defined by the US American academic Kimberlé Crenshaw in 1989 to describe the experiences of black women in predominantly white spaces. Intersectionality is an analytical tool and a critical framework for exploring multiple and overlapping identities, privileges and oppressions, acknowleging that different types of discrimination are exerted on multiple identities at the same time.
how we organise ourselves
La Escocesa follows a collective management model with an internal assembly organisation. This assembly is made up of all the members (both residents and users) of the artists' association 'Associació d'Idees EMA', who annually elect the board by vote.
The board acts as the representative body of the assembly and meets weekly with the centre's management to jointly decide on the various lines of action for La Escocesa and other issues related to management. These meetings are open to the entire community and in each one a minute is drawn up, which is shared with all the members. The daily management work (administration, production, communication...) is carried out by the office team.
La Escocesa, as a public institution promoted by Barcelona City Council, works mainly through open calls. Once a year the call is opened to be part of the Associació d'Idees EMA to be a member of La Escocesa. The director’s role, the residencies and scholarships are also selected through open calls.
We believe in transparency as a basic element of any public and feminist organisation and therefore, we share our programs, open call’s results and our budgets on our website. If you think there is missing information or there is something you want to know, please write to: info@laescocesa.org
artists board 2024
Helena Vinent - President
Natalia Carminati - Vicepresident
Laura Arensburg - Treasurer
Sonia Villar - Secretary
Joan Marc Batllé (aka Llapispanc) - Member
Catarina Botelho - Member
Gustavo Caletti - Member
Natalia Castañeda - Member
Antoni Hervas - Member
Anna Irina Russell - Member
Adrianna Szodja - Member
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