The ENAIRE Foundation expands its action plan to make its collection and aeronautical culture better known

The Board of Trustees of the ENAIRE Foundation has approved the Annual Accounts and the Activities Report for 2023 and the first half of 2024.

In addition, it approved an extraordinary extension of the Action Plan for 2024 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the ENAIRE Foundation, which includes more activities to promote aeronautical culture, make its collection of art works more visible, increase the activity at the Naves de Gamazo Art Centre, and improve and promote its partnership strategy. The update to the 2024 Action Plan takes place one hundred days after Margarita Asuar was appointed as Managing Director. 

Activities in the first half of 2024 and expansion of the Action Plan

In the field of aviation, the prizes and grants for the conservation of aeronautical heritage were announced. A campaign to advertise the Aeronautical Awards was launched on social media, which managed to expand in record time the number of candidates to 77, exceeding the 54 candidates presented in 2023.   Grants to maintain aviation assets were issued in May for a total of 168,000 euros: 97,000 euros to the Fundación Infante de Orleans; 54,000 euros to the Fundación Parc Aeronàutic de Catalunya (FPAC); 12,000 euros to the Fundación Aeronáutica de la Comunidad Valenciana (FACV), and 5,000 euros to the Asociación Deportiva Jacob 52.

A partnership was signed with the Tablada Centenaria Association to start collaborating on projects that promote aeronautical culture. “This association is a benchmark and its goal is to promote knowledge of the history of air navigation in Seville and of new aeronautical developments”, explained Margarita Asuar.

The first Aeronautical Air and Land Art Competition was announced in June, intended for personnel of ENAIRE and Aena and their relatives (submissions open until 31 August). 

And, with the extension of the Action Plan to 2024, the Space Award is now called Manuel Abejón in recognition of the person and career of the first president of Aena.

As for the activities carried out by the ENAIRE Foundation in the first half of 2024, in the artistic field, the Foundation took part in FITUR and ARCO; the Photography Award was announced, and the Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Paloma Navares. 

The exhibition by José Manuel Ciria, Pintura. Memoria y tiempo and Conciencia2 was opened at the Naves de Gamazo Art Centre, with photographs from the ENAIRE collection. The group exhibition of the 2024 Photography Award and the exhibition Luz de intuición (Light of Intuition) by Paloma Navares were inaugurated at the Royal Botanical Garden as part of the ENAIRE Foundation's participation in PhotoEspaña. June also saw the premiere of the exhibition De arboris perennis by José Manuel Ballester in the Naves de Gamazo, a centre run by the ENAIRE Foundation in collaboration with the Government of Cantabria and the Port of Santander.

[Eugenia Gómez de Diego, delegate of the Government (left) together with Margarita Asuar, Managing Director of Fundación ENAIRE]

In addition, the first Art Capsule was installed at the Seve Ballesteros-Santander Airport, kicking off the ConcienciARTE initiative, with the exhibition of works by José Manuel Ciria, belonging to the ENAIRE Collection, and works of the group exhibition - featuring Paloma Navares - 'Me olvidé que te olvidaba' (I forgot I forgot about you), staged in collaboration with the association of women's artists Blanco, Negro y Magenta. This exhibition, donated by the artists and intended to raise awareness of Alzheimer's, begins at the Airport and continues at the Naves de Gamazo Art Centre until 31 August (the exhibition will then go to the Pascual Maragall Foundation), creating in the two spaces a dialogue with the work of Ciria dedicated to memory and time.

The Foundation has signed partnerships with leading associations of women artists, which have been resolutely consolidated and committed for many years to promoting women's art. The ENAIRE Foundation, in order to comply with Article 26 of Organic Law 3/2007 of 22 March, on the effective equality of women and men, is taking positive measures in the field of artistic and intellectual creation and production in order to boost women artists.

The ENAIRE Foundation also partnered with the Women in Visual Arts Foundation (MAV) as part of the Contemporary Art Biennial, with the granting of three ENAIRE Foundation Special Mentions at the 2024 MAV Contemporary Art Biennial, and the participation in the exhibition Luz de intuición by Paloma Navares as a guest project. 

“The associations we have signed collaboration protocols with are experts in art made by women, so partnering with these specialists is a guarantee that what we present to the public will be of high quality”, explains Asuar.

A hundred days of Margarita Asuar

[Margarita Asuar, Managing Director of ENAIRE Foundation]

“Of my first 100 days leading the ENAIRE Foundation, I would note that we have incorporated digital museum resources into exhibitions (tours, virtual rooms and digital catalogues), which allow anyone to access the content from anywhere in the world and free of charge, to democratise access to art. This makes projects much more sustainable; we are in the Digital Age and there is a series of museum resources that we can apply to make art much more appealing, dynamic and communicative. We also started the Art Capsules at the Seve Ballesteros-Santander Airport, a Beta project that we hope to implement at other Aena airports as part of the ConcienciARTE initiative, through which we will try to introduce aeronautical art and science to the public with a common thread and topics with a social impact”, says Margarita Asuar.

About ENAIRE Foundation

Is a cultural institution of the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility that, in addition to managing, preserving and exhibiting the ENAIRE Collection of Contemporary Art, engages in a comprehensive annual programme of activities that focus on aeronautical art and culture. Notably, it is one of the institutions that currently provides the most support to photography through its annual prizes - which have become a benchmark for professional photographers - and by hosting exhibits.

It is the only foundation in Spain that combines the two seemingly disparate themes of art and aeronautical culture, bringing them together by undertaking a programme of activities that promote the study, research, knowledge and dissemination of aeronautical culture, integrating history and modernity to raise awareness of the world of aviation in our country.

The Naves de Gamazo are the first permanent home of the ENAIRE Collection of Contemporary Art, an example of collaboration between government agencies that was made possible thanks to the partnership and joint efforts of the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, the Government of Cantabria, through the Office for Culture, Tourism and Sport, and the Port Authority of Santander, which share the operating expenses of the centre in order to ensure the present and future viability of this cultural project.

ENAIRE Foundation is implementing digital museum resources to boost the democratisation of art and make it accessible from anywhere in the world. These new museum resources are now available on the Foundation's website.

About ENAIRE

ENAIRE is the air navigation service provider in Spain.

As a company of the Ministry of Sustainable Transport and Mobility, it provides en route control services for all flights and overflights from five control centres in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Gran Canaria and Palma, as well as approach services to every airport in the country.

In addition, 46 airports receive communication, navigation and surveillance services from ENAIRE, which also maintains their air traffic control systems, and 21 of them, including the country's busiest airports, rely on its aerodrome air traffic control services.

ENAIRE is Europe's fourth largest air traffic manager and participates in the A6 Alliance, a coalition of air navigation providers responsible for over 80% of European air traffic, and which is seeking to modernise the air traffic management system. It is also a member of other international alliances promoting the Single European sky, such as SESAR Joint Undertaking, SESAR Deployment Manager, iTEC, CANSO and ICAO.

ENAIRE, as the responsible agency identified by the Ministry of Sustainable Transport and Mobility to implement the U-Space system in Spain, will, through its digital platform, provide the Common Information Services (CIS), which are essential to facilitate U-space services to drones and Urban Air Mobility in cooperation with local air traffic services, so that all types of aircraft can fly safely in the same airspace.

ENAIRE has received the highest score in Europe on the aviation safety key performance indicator for four years in a row. It has also been awarded the EFQM 500 Seal for its safe, efficient, innovative and sustainable management of air navigation services.