As every year, the Consell Insular de Menorca has issued a call for grant applications intended to promote better understanding and safeguarding of the island's historical heritage. The 2022 funding call also now features a new line to include within these grants actions promoting the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage.
With regard to line 1, then (Restoration of historical heritage assets), seven grants have been awarded, with an overall value of €60,000; in line 2 (Archaeological and palaeontological interventions), eleven grant awards have been made, totalling €132,178.05; in line 3 (Historical research), six applications have been approved, for a total of €29,050; in line 4 (Scientific publications), four grants have been awarded, totalling €6,000; in line 5 (Organisation and staging of seminars and outreach activities) three grants have been assigned, with a sum total of €13,171.95. As for line 6 (Intangible cultural heritage safeguarding, understanding and showcasing initiatives), four grants totalling €9,600 have been awarded.
Intangible cultural heritage
The Linguistic Policy and Intangible Cultural Heritage Service of the Department of Cultural Affairs, Education, Youth and Sport takes a positive view of the response to this new funding line, which it intends to
consolidate in future years within the context of Heritage subsidies, as the four initiatives which applied for funding are considered to be of considerable interest in safeguarding Menorca's intangible heritage. The initiatives receiving support from the Consell Insular are: the Sonora project, to research and showcase oral recollection by means of the radio broadcaster promoted by Es Far Cultural; the project "The space of the breaker: tools and educational zone", to be undertaken at Lithica; the seminar "Glosa singing as an educational tool", to be organised by Soca de Mots, and the study project "Singing, songs and singers in festive contexts of Menorca", courtesy of the researcher Jordi Orell.
The Consell Insular de Menorca, through its Department of Cultural Affairs, Education, Youth and Sports, in partnership with the Institut Menorquí d’Estudis and the Menorca Biosphere Reserve Agency, has since 2017 been implementing the Action Plan for the generation of the Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Menorca (Ipcime), in fulfilment of its duty as a public authority to adopt operational approaches and specific grants to facilitate an understanding of the different inherent expressions of intangible culture in Menorca and to ensure their future survival, as established in Law 18/2019, on the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage of the Balearic Islands.
The full information published in the Official Gazette of the Balearic islands can be consulted
here.