Benidorm establishes itself as a great open-air museum with the exhibition ‘El Prado in the Streets’

The Iberdrola Spain Foundation has brought the exhibition ‘El Prado en las Calles’ to Benidorm, an exhibition located at the confluence of Avenida del Mediterráneo and Plaza de la Hispanidad which was inaugurated this Friday. It can be visited from September 27 to October 27, thus consolidating “the commitment of Benidorm City Council to make the city a great open-air museum”, as Mayor Toni Pérez has said.

This travelling open-air exhibition aims to make the collections and historical heritage of the Prado Museum known to the people of Benidorm, and to anyone who comes to this town.

The opening ceremony was attended by the regional minister for Education, Culture, Universities and Employment of the Generalitat Valenciana, José Antonio Rovira; the regional secretary for Culture, Pilar Tébar; the Deputy Director of the Prado Museum, Marina Chinchilla; Fernando García, president of the Iberdrola Spain Foundation; Ramón Castresana, director of the foundation; and Ibán Molina, Institutional Delegate of Iberdrola in the Valencian Community, together with the Mayor of Benidorm, Toni Pérez, the Councillor for Historical and Cultural Heritage, Ana Pellicer; and other members of the Municipal Corporation. They were also joined by other public representatives such as the Vice-President of the Provincial Council of Alicante, Ana Serna; the Provincial Deputy for Culture, Juan de Dios Román; or the regional deputies José Ramón González de Zárate and Mario Villar, as well as other representatives of the institutions involved and numerous citizens who wanted to be the first to see the exhibition.

During the inauguration of this exhibition, the mayor explained that Benidorm “has used one of our slogans in the action, which is the pick and shovel” and then said that the city has been “working since 2022 to host this exhibition”. In this sense, he recalled that the city started its project of “bringing art to the streets from the Department of Historical and Cultural Heritage long before, with ‘Benidorm Expone’”, with the premise that “bringing art to the streets is bringing culture to people who, in their daily lives, would hardly be able to approach a world-class work of great prestige on a simple walk, as they will now be able to do in Benidorm”.

The councillor was convinced that “thousands of people will be able to enjoy this magnificent exhibition” and thanked the Iberdrola Foundation, the Prado Museum and the Generalitat “for this alliance to bring to cities, to people, one of the largest and best collections in the world, such as our National Prado Museum”.

Finally, he referred to the work chosen to promote the exhibition here in Benidorm, ‘El Jardín de las delicias’ by El Bosco. “Benidorm is the Garden of Delights, the earthly paradise for millions of people who have found in our city the value of the democratisation of tourism, which we celebrate today with a great prize for the Museo Nacional del Prado for World Tourism Day and we celebrate it, in addition, with art and culture in the street.”

For his part, the Minister of Education, Culture, Universities and Employment, José Antonio Rovira, has highlighted that “today is a culturally important day for Benidorm, as its residents have the privilege of being the first in the Valencian Community to be able to enjoy this exhibition.” “This initiative – the Minister has added – is a unique opportunity to make culture and art accessible to all citizens, from the youngest to the oldest,” he added.
The Minister of Culture has encouraged the residents of Benidorm and its visitors “to go out into the street and contemplate these masterpieces and enjoy these treasures” and has congratulated the El Prado Museum for the International ‘Ciutat de Benidorm Award', which has been awarded to it by the City Council, coinciding with the World Tourism Day, “for being the greatest cultural attraction in our country and for its enormous international projection.”

Marina Chinchilla, deputy director of Museo del Prado, recalled that this exhibition began its tour in 2019, coinciding with the bicentennial of Museo del Prado, with the premise of “making the entire national and international society feel that Museo del Prado is an institution, a heritage, that belongs to everyone and for everyone”. She also highlighted that the exhibition allows visitors “to see details that they will not be able to see on a normal visit to the Museum because you will not be able to get that close to it”, so “it allows you to do many activities and get to know the Museum's collections well and especially these 50 masterpieces”.

The president of the Iberdrola Spain Foundation, Fernando García Sánchez, has “being here today on Tourism Day in Benidorm, the most cosmopolitan city in the Spanish East, is a pride and a joy”. He also explained the Iberdrola Foundation's connection and commitment to art and culture and stressed that exhibitions such as 'El Prado in the streets' have a double objective: on the one hand, "to encourage all citizens and tourists who see this exhibition here and in this format to also visit the Prado Museum one day to be able to enjoy the originals there" and, at the same time, "to offer the possibility that not only the general public but also schools, the youngest, through this exhibition get to know not only art but also history, because knowing history is also being able to define the direction and objectives of our future."

'El Museo del Prado in Benidorm' is made up of 50 full-scale photographic panels that offer a journey through the history of Western art and our country by the hand of great masters of painting such as Goya, Velázquez, Rubens, Dürer, Rembrandt, El Bosco or Caravaggio, among others. An exhibition that offers an open-air stroll among the great schools of painting that make up the Prado Museum's collection.

Among the highlights are the bilingual information panels for each of the works, as well as QR codes that provide more information about the history of the art gallery and its collections.

Since the exhibition began its journey in Spain in 2020, 'El Prado en las Calles' has had many visitors in various locations such as Castilla La-Mancha, Castilla y León, Extremadura and Andalusia. As regards the Valencian Community, Benidorm is the first stop on a journey that will also take it to Ontinyent, Castellón, Sagunt, Alicante, Valencia, Vinaròs and Orihuela and will conclude in Burriana in July 2025.

Iberdrola Spain Foundation, Defending Member of Prado Museum

The Iberdrola Spain Foundation has one of its main areas of activity focused on the care and maintenance of the cultural and artistic treasures of our country.

It has collaborated with the Museo del Prado since 2010 by supporting the art gallery's conservation and restoration programs, as well as by developing 4 annual scholarships for young restorers. In addition, in 2019 it joined the Extraordinary Program for the Commemoration of the Bicentennial of the Museo del Prado and, following its success, this travelling exhibition was launched in Spain.

Since 2011, Iberdrola Spain Foundation has allocated a total of 13 million euros to the Art and Culture area, which focuses its resources mainly on the Restoration Program, which supports restoration workshops at leading museums for the conservation of their pictorial and artistic heritage; and the Lighting Program, which includes the design, execution and financing of artistic lighting projects in unique buildings and monuments.