This paper develops a framework for analysing the community dimension of large professional cultural institutions, applying it to the case of Òpera Prima Raval (OPR), a new programme by Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona (Spain). This so-called community opera programme aims at (a) activating co-creation processes and active participation and (b) bringing opera closer to a diverse population (Gran Teatre del Liceu, 2019, p. 5). It was born with the aim of strengthening the links between the institution and the citizens by producing a community opera production every three years. Raval was chosen as the first district, to be the district where the Liceu is located. Started in 2018, the opera’s première, La gata perduda, took place in October 2022. OPR is also part of the European project Traction, which provides a bridge between opera professionals and specific communities at risk of exclusion.

This article is based on a specific conceptual framework, which defines community action as collectively working on common objectives through a process of dynamisation of cooperative social relations between members of a community (for example, in a neighbourhood, around a facility or in a project). The aim is to improve the daily well-being of people by making them actively participate in the actions that must be carried out to achieve this goal (Carmona & Rebollo, 2009; Morales et al, 2012). In the field of culture and the arts, talking about community action implies recognising and promoting the cultural capacities of people and groups to participate, create and decide on their cultural life and that of their surroundings (Barbieri, 2018). They are spaces that "allow us to delve into the relationship between the collective processes of artistic creation and civic and political participation" and are generally triggered "by the cultures, identities, histories, traditions and perceived needs of people and communities" (Cruz, 2020, p. 3).

With Òpera Prima, the Liceu was committed to incorporating the community dimension into its development as a cultural facility. But what does this exactly mean? As a public institution, regardless of the service it includes (cultural, sportive, educational...), it implies "developing its project and its activities from a dialogue with the environment, trying to be accessible to everyone, and promoting the community participation of the people it serves and the community actors in the area" (Barcelona City Council, 2020). The article is therefore based on a case study of OPR, a programme that prioritised the dimensions of accessibility and participation and that favoured the participation of communities in three areas: (a) musical and dramatic writing, (b) music, acting and dance performance and (c) construction of technical elements (Gran Teatre del Liceu, 2019).

Considering it was Liceu’s first time developing a community opera, the theatre commissioned an external evaluation, which is the basis of this case-study analysis (Barbieri, 2020). Therefore, the data collection and analysis was developed in two phases: phase 1, between June and December 2020, where we studied the process of creating the opera's subject matter (libretto, etc.), and phase 2, between July and December 2022, where we studied the development of the artistic and technical aspects of the opera. The analysis was guided by two research questions: to what extent can Òpera Prima Raval be considered a community cultural project? And, to what extent is Òpera Prima Raval an equitable intervention regarding the participating neighbourhood profile? It should also be noted that, once each stage of the research was completed, there was a debriefing meeting with the team responsible for the development of the community opera. Bearing in mind that this was the theatre's first experience in community programmes of this scale, the aim of the research-evaluation was to be participatory, so that the theatre could learn as much as possible from the experience in order to apply it to future editions.

The methodology used in both phases was mixed. Qualitatively speaking, we were provided with Liceu’s private documents on the project and we conducted semi-structured interviews. In terms of quantitative data, we created an online survey for the neighbours who participated in the opera, in order to contrast this data with the socio-demographic information of the neighbourhood where the Liceu is based, the Raval. The last of the data collection types was observation from a non-participant perspective.

Although results are preliminary, the data analysed allow us to see that the first edition of Ópera Prima Raval opened up the theatre to the neighbourhood through a community programme in terms of (1) being proactive in connecting with the Raval, trying to listen to everyone and (2) including diverse people and a plurality of community agents, favouring a change in the infrastructure (access). On the other hand, the process fell short in favouring active participation, self-organisation and autonomy of the people and entities involved, and choral decision-making (participation).

Regarding the socio-demographic analysis of the participants, in comparison with the data from Ravals’ neighbourhood, the significant presence of women or unemployed people is evident in OPR. The presence of people with a migratory background is also evident, although the Liceu is located in a neighbourhood where more than 50% of the population is of migrant origin. Finally, the participants’ degree of training and intensity of cultural participation appear as important challenges in terms of the equitable nature of OPR.

Considering Òpera Prima Raval is the first programme of this nature in Spain, this article is not only relevant for the Liceu, to improve future editions of the programme, but also for other public and private institutions and administrations that want to implement a similar strategy.

References:

Barbieri, N., 2018. Es la desigualdad, también en cultura. Cultura y Ciudadanía. Pensamiento, 2018. Available at:
https://ddd.uab.cat/pub/artpub/2018/220409/cultura_y_ciudadania.pdf

Barcelona City Council, 2020. Guia d’autoavaluació de la mirada comunitària dels equipaments. Barcelona City Council. Available at: https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/acciocomunitaria/sites/default/files/autoavaluacio_comunitaria-cat.pdf

Carmona, M; & Rebollo, O., 2009. Guia operativa d’Acció Comunitària. Acció Social i ciutadania. Barcelona City Council. Available at: https://bcnroc.ajuntament.barcelona.cat/jspui/bitstream/11703/91427/1/2577.pdf

Cruz, H., Bezelga, I. & Menezes, I., 2020. Para uma Tipologia da Participação nas Práticas Artísticas Comunitárias: a experiência de três grupos teatrais no Brasil e Portugal. Revista Brasileira de Estudos da Presença. 10. 10.1590/2237-266089422. Available at: https://www.scielo.br/j/rbep/a/MmKYgxbnnX8kVgPRXcSY3vv

Gran Teatre del Liceu, 2019. Creació artística comunitària al Gran Teatre del Liceu – Informe fase zero. Gran Teatre del Liceu

Morales, E., Rebollo, O & Gonzalez, S., 2012. Guia operativa d’avaluació de l’acció comunitària. Barcelona City Council. Available at:
https://ajuntament.barcelona.cat/acciocomunitaria/sites/default/files/documents/guia_operativa_avaluacio_accio_comunitaria_acc.pdf