08 de February de 2024.- Castilla y León participates with a total of 65 activities in the new edition of reading animation programs for secondary school students and plastic arts in public centers that, within the framework of the Reading Promotion Plan 2021-2024, is promoted by the Ministry of Culture, through the General Directorate of Books, Comics and Reading. In particular, in the Autonomous Community there are 61 literary activities in Secondary Schools, including four of the project ‘Why Read the Classics’, and 4 encounters of ‘Storytellers’ in Art Schools. Throughout the territory, the programs, which run until June 14, add up to 404 activities in which a total of 302 creators participate.
Literature in the institutes
With more than two decades of experience, the program of literary activities in Secondary Schools offers students the opportunity to get to know the work of narrators, poets, playwrights, illustrators or translators closely, and represents an opportunity for the participating authors to take a pulse of the interests of young readers.
In Castilla y León, the 61 activities are divided into institutes in the nine provinces: Ávila (6), Burgos (6), León (13), Palencia (3), Salamanca (7), Segovia (5), Soria (3), Valladolid (11) and Zamora (7). Among the participating authors are David Fernández Sifres, Yolanda Castaño, Ana Bermejo and Alberto Conejero.
In total, this year the project brings together 263 authors, including Care Santos, Mario Obrero, Espid Freire and David Lozano. In total, 370 activities have been programmed throughout Spain. In addition to those mentioned in Castilla y León, there will be 88 in Andalusia; 11 in Aragón; 7 in the Principality of Asturias; 1 in the Balearic Islands; 9 in Cantabria; 7 in the Canary Islands; 20 in Castilla-La Mancha; 4 in Catalonia; 20 in Extremadura; 27 in Galicia; 3 in La Rioja; 52 in the Community of Madrid; 18 in the Region of Murcia; 3 in Navarra; 2 in the Basque Country; 33 in the Valencian Community; and 1 in Ceuta. In addition, there will be a meeting in Casablanca (Morocco), one in Rome and one in Andorra.
Illustration and comic in art schools
In the same way, the program ‘Story Artists. Literary encounters in Art Schools’, which is intended to support creators dedicated mainly to illustration and comics, will have 4 quotations in Castilla y León. Paco Sordo will meet with the students of the School of Art and Superior of CRBC of Ávila, Eduardo Flores will be at the School of Art and Superior of Design of Soria, Isidro Pérez will visit the School of Art and Superior of CRBC of Valladolid and Arnau Sanz will attend the School of Art and Superior of Design of Zamora.
These meetings are held in public centers that offer professional teachings of plastic arts and design and have as their main purpose to contribute to the development of a quality artistic training that guarantees the qualification of future professionals of the plastic arts and design.
In total, there will be 34 meetings distributed throughout the territory, in which 33 authors will participate, among which are Paco Roca, Ana Peynas, Manel Cráneo or Ana Pez. By autonomous communities, in addition to the Castilian and Leonese meetings, there will be 8 in Andalusia; 2 in Aragon; 1 in the Principality of Asturias; 1 in the Balearic Islands; 3 in Castilla-La Mancha; 4 in Catalonia; 3 in Galicia; 1 in the Region of Murcia; 2 in Navarre; 3 in the Community of Madrid; 1 in Ceuta; and 1 in Melilla.
Program Development
The program of literary activities in Secondary Education Institutes of public ownership is developed in face-to-face and telematic mode and has two types of activities: on the one hand, literary meetings in which the author talks about his work and creative process and maintains an open dialogue with the students. And, on the other hand, ‘Why Read the Classics’, an activity in which the focus is placed on the work or figure of an author whose transcendence goes beyond a specific historical period or literary current. For the development of this activity, the General Directorate of Books, Comics and Reading makes available to the centers a list of different ephemerides and commemorations of 2024.
In the choice of the proposed activities, priority has been given to those institutes that participate for the first time in the program or that did not have activity the previous year. Likewise, the diversity between literary genres (narrative, poetry, theater, essay, translation and illustration), the variety of the trajectory of the author or author, the parity, the balanced representation of the different territories or the presence of the two types of activity that fall within this program has been valued.
In turn, in the program ‘History Cartoonists’ it has been the centers themselves that, depending on their programming, have proposed the participation of the creators and agreed with them the topics to be treated, the format and the date of celebration of the activity.