LABoral signs two agreements with Foundation CTIC and Alcoa to set Creatic in motion
Conceived as a creativity and technological research laboratory, Creatic will be based in the Art and Industrial Creation Centre of Gijón.
This afternoon (10th December) LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial signed two agreements, with Foundation CTIC and Alcoa Inespal respectively, for the organization of research projects in the Centre. In the presence of the President of the Principality of Asturias, Vicente Álvarez Areces, the Director of LABoral, Rosina Gómez-Baeza, the Director of Foundation CTIC, Pablo Priesca, and the President of Alcoa Inespal, José Ramón Camino de Miguel, the parties entered into these two agreements for the establishment of Creatic, a laboratory aimed at young researchers for the development of projects within the field of ICT (Information & Communications Technology).
The act was attended by the President of the Foundation La Laboral. Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial, Jesús Manuel Hevia-Aza, and the Deputy Head of Dept of Culture and Vice-president of the Board of Trustees, Jorge Fernández León.
The purpose of the CTIC Foundation in creating a space for technological creativity functioning as the first link in the value chain in the area of R&D will now find room at LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial. Creatic will be located in the multipurpose rooms on the first floor of the Centre and aims to become a focus for the promotion and encouragement of emerging young researchers and of companies engaged with creativity, investigation and innovation.
Nine months after its opening, LABoral implements one of the strategic lines underpinning the LABoral Centro de Arte y Creación Industrial project, which is research. Investigation is thereby being added to the other foundational axes of Exhibition, Production, Education and other Programmes (awards and festivals) developed by LABoral, channelling it through the labs and the artistic and technological experimentation and innovation activities. The presence of LABoral in Creatic will produce collaboration synergies between artists and creators, and the scientists and technicians participating in the labs.
According to the Director of LABoral, Rosina Gómez-Baeza, the need to incorporate research into art centres and museums is gaining greater importance. Currently, all museums are already talking about production and investigation".
Alcoa´s participation will be made effective through the Alcoa Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation contributing to the improvement and strengthening of education, medical aid, cultural development, sustainability, the environment and quality of life opportunities for the inhabitants living in the communities where Alcoa is active. Among its goals are the promotion and encouragement of activities related to the development of Information & Communications Technologies which may contribute to the progress of society. For that purpose, Alcoa, through its Foundation, has rewarded LABoral with two hundred and twenty thousand US dollars ($220,000 / €157,000) for funding the Creatic project.
Creatic is open to talented young researchers from all over the world (both university students and recent graduates) who will receive a one-year grant for developing their works subject to the approval of an evaluation committee which shall select the most suitable proposals.
