The Council of Ministers approves the Royal Decree for the creation of the National Photography Center in Soria

• Confirms the creation of an institution called to be the national and international reference point for photography in Spain • With an investment of 8.5 million euros, work is expected to begin in early 2024

July 18, 2023.- The Council of Ministers has approved, at the proposal of the Minister of Culture and Sport, Miquel Iceta, the Royal Decree establishing the National Center of Photography (CNF) in Soria. The new state-owned cultural institution, located in the former headquarters of the Bank of Spain, will involve an investment of almost 8.5 million euros from the Ministry of Culture and Sport, to which is added a nominative grant of 100,000 euros to the City of Soria for the development of the programming of cultural activities.

The works to adapt the historic property are scheduled to begin at the beginning of 2024 and end in 2025, with the estimate of opening its doors in 2026. The choice of this enclave allows the definitive transformation of a reference building in the city into a space of civic projection, with a total area of 3,573 square meters distributed over four floors. The will of the CNF is to become a national and international reference point for photography, which the Royal Decree recognizes as “one of the most transcendent expressions of our culture in a double aspect of document and work of art”.

The centre responds to the Government ' s strategy to address the demographic challenges posed by sparsely populated areas, which aims to promote tourism and access to culture in depopulated territories. Its location in Soria helps decentralize the significant state cultural spaces of the big cities and meets the demands of the main national photography associations. In this way, the text underlines the strategy of the Ministry of Culture and Sport in favor of overturning the transformative power of culture in low population density territories.

The Royal Decree, which consists of 11 articles, attributes to the new center the function of ensuring the correct conservation of material testimonies representative of photography in Spain, as well as the development of temporary exhibitions. It also includes the creation of a virtual portal with its own programming, the provision of funds to citizens and researchers and the mission of creating and coordinating a permanent network of photography centers and museums.

Likewise, its creation pursues a sustainable management model. Understood as a focus of attraction for national and foreign researchers, as well as people interested in the subject, the CNF will result in the creation of employment and in the promotion of services that guarantee the effectiveness and quality of your stay.

For its part, the City of Soria has bought the building annexed, the Palace of Alcántara, for cultural uses associated with the CNF.

With the launch of this new centre, it responds to the historical demand, on the part of culture in general and the specialized sectors in particular, to create, under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Sport, an institution dedicated exclusively to the claim of an artistic and documentary discipline in which Spain has been and is the protagonist, through generations of first-rate photographers who have written part of contemporary history.