On Thursday the 11th, the Cabildo de Tenerife was the venue for the international meeting of the performing arts and music networks, which aimed at reaching synergies among them to encourage the strengthening of these groups. The meeting took place on the occasion of MAPAS, which is taking place in Santa Cruz de Tenerife until Sunday.

The President of the Cabildo, Carlos Alonso, welcomed the participants and thanked the Secretaría General Iberoamericana (Segib) for the chance to hold this annual “network node” in Tenerife, and trusted the sessions at MAPAS will be a success as in the two previous years.

The Island Director for Culture, José Luis Rivero, was also very grateful to the coordinator of Espacio Cultural Iberoamericano of Segib, Enrique Vargas, for allowing that entity to “be a support that helps MAPAS create the Latin American space, which is also open to other European, Asian and African networks”. In Rivero’s view, the session held at the Cabildo reveals “whether we can work as networks or we’re just individuals who work with no synergies”.

Enrique Vargas thinks that the new meeting in Tenerife “is a chance to continue to exchange views based on trust so that we can find both individual and collective answers” and pointed out that on the third MAPAS “we can see we’re now a group with solid thoughts that have been shaped in the previous two years; therefore, we’re on our way to make things work better”.

In Vargas’s opinion, “networks are healthy but one of the main obstacles they find is the relationship with the administration; we’ve noticed a different attitude at MAPAS”, in reference to the willingness of Cabildo de Tenerife which “is not just an institution but the way they got involved in it”.

MAPAS co-director, Octavio Arbeláez, was most pleased with the meeting because it allows us to rethink the concept of networks and circuits. At the meeting the importance of having policies to articulate and professionalise the sector was also pointed out.

The groups present at this meeting were: Asociación para el Desarrollo de la Industria de la Música Iberoamericana (ADIMI), Circuito de Música y Artes Escénicas TalentIB, Red Eurolatinoamericana de Artes Escénicas (REDELAE), IBERESCENA – Programa de Cooperación Iberoamericana para las Artes Escénicas, European Forum World Festival, Red Española de Teatros, Auditorios, Circuitos y Festivales de Titularidad Pública (REDESCENA), SATÉLITE LAT – Mujeres de la Industria de la Música Latinoamericana, Asociación Latinoamericana de Managers Musicales – MMF LATAM, Global Music Market Network (GLOMNET), Secretaría General Iberoamericana (SEGIB), Mercado de las Artes Performativas del Atlántico Sur (MAPAS), Programa de Fomento de las Músicas Iberoamericanas (IBERMÚSICAS), Circuito Canario Islas de Música, Teatro y Danza, Circuito de Artes Escénicas de Gran Canaria, East African Performing Arts Market (DOADOA), Circuito Insular de Teatro y Danza de Tenerife, International Network for Contemporary Performing Arts (IETEM).