Apropa Cultura is a network of cultural facilities, such as theatres, concert halls, festivals and museums, whose main purpose is to encourage inclusiveness promoting cultural activities and events. The initiative started during the season 2006/2007 when L’Auditori launched the Auditori Apropa: a programme targeted to attract groups at risk of social exclusion, encouraging minorities to attend events at a lower price. Few years later, L’Auditori invited other organisations in Barcelona to participate and, as a result, the Apropa Culture was created with a new rich programme with all sorts of events: music, theatre, dance and circus. Nowadays, Apropa counts 15 cities with a total of 55 cultural centres, involving every season about 20.000 spectators.

In addition to music, theatre, dance and circus, Apropa offers a wide range of activities: for instance, museums and cultural centres offer free visits of their exhibitions. Some activities have been designed exclusively for vulnerable groups and are carried out throughout the season in different theatres and auditoriums. Moreover, every year courses are organised in the performing of arts, music, plastic and visual arts. Specifically, Educa amb l’Art (“educate with art”) is a project for social workers, therapists, coordinators etc. without any prior knowledge in art and music.

Agropa Cultura philosophy and main goal is to prevent social exclusion encouraging people’s participation promoting the democratization of culture. In particular, the following vulnerable groups have been involved: people with intellectual or physical disabilities, mental illness, elderlies, immigrants, children and adolescents, people with drug addictions and women victims of domestic violence. In fact, Apropa strongly believes that culture develops creativity while improving people’s wellbeing, confidence and self-esteem.