An online information session will take place today 9 june at 13:00 (Canary Islands time), marking the first in a series of events to be held across different islands and in several languages as part of the national and European outreach campaign for the Open Call.

The Mata Castle Museum hosted on Thursday, 4 June, the presentation of the second Open Call of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria’s bid to become European Capital of Culture 2031 to the city’s cultural and artistic sector. This participatory initiative, open until 15 July, has been designed to continue building—through inclusion and collaboration—the final Bid Book that the city will present to the European jury at the end of this year.

Cultural proposals and profiles of cultural practitioners can be submitted through a simple and user-friendly form available on the LPGC’31 bid website, accessible via both www.rebeliondelageografia.com or www.lpgc2031.com

The session was led by LPGC’31 Artistic Director José Luis Pérez Pont, accompanied by Beatriz Bello and Sergio Lago, members of the ‘Geography Rebellion’ technical office. Held within the REBEL WALLS. Urban Stories exhibition space, the event brought together more than fifty representatives and professionals from the artistic and cultural sectors, including creators, cultural managers, associations, collectives and companies. The gathering provided an opportunity to share the objectives of this new stage of work and to foster dialogue around the future cultural project of the city.

Both the presentation and the lively exchange of ideas that followed highlighted the open and participatory nature of a bid that continues to grow through the involvement of the local, island-wide and international cultural ecosystem.

Online Outreach Campaign

To facilitate the dissemination of the Open Call, a programme of webinars and online information sessions has been created, enabling individuals residing outside Gran Canaria—and even beyond the Canary Islands—to take part in shaping the narrative of ‘Geography Rebellion’. The first webinar will take place on Tuesday, 9 June, at 13:00 Canary Islands time, via www.meet.google.com/ije-xaxh-poq](http://www.meet.google.com/ije-xaxh-poq . Information about the session will also be available through the bid’s social media channels, @lpgc2031.

A second webinar, conducted in English and aimed at international audiences, will be held on 25 June at 17:00.

These online sessions will be complemented by in-person events across different islands, reflecting the fact that “Rebelión de la Geografía” has become a cultural project for the entire Canary Islands archipelago. Beyond geographical origin, the goal is to bring together perspectives that share the values and questions at the heart of the bid.

A Crucial Phase for ‘Geography Rebellion’
Having successfully passed the first selection stage and secured its place among the finalist cities competing to become European Capital of Culture 2031, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is now entering a decisive phase in the development of its final proposal.

 Participants were reminded that the bid is structured around the concept of ‘Geography Rebellion’, an invitation to rethink Europe from its geographical, social and symbolic margins, while placing at the centre of the cultural debate the voices emerging from islands, peripheral regions and singular territories. From this perspective, the bid seeks to generate new forms of cooperation, knowledge exchange and citizenship-building through culture.

From Projects to People
The second Open Call represents an evolution from the process launched in 2025. While the first phase focused primarily on identifying cultural initiatives, the new call places people, organisations and cultural agents at the centre of the process, recognising their essential role in creation, mediation and cultural management.

The initiative aims to establish an open database of cultural practitioners, projects and artistic proposals, enabling the incorporation of the diverse experiences, trajectories and lines of work that characterise the Canary Islands’ cultural ecosystem, while also strengthening connections with professionals and organisations from other territories.

The contributions gathered through the call will help shape and progressively develop the cultural programme planned for the period 2026–2031. They will also contribute to the long-term legacy of a project focused on cultural rights and transformation, with a ten-year horizon.

An Open International Call
During the presentation, particular emphasis was placed on the inclusive nature of the call, which is open to artists from all disciplines, cultural managers, mediators, curators, cultural enterprises, collectives, foundations, associations and public institutions.

The call also welcomes initiatives operating at the intersection of culture and fields such as education, innovation, science, sustainability, wellbeing and social cohesion. It is aimed at participants from all Canary Islands, the rest of Spain, Macaronesia, Africa, the Americas and other European territories.

Five Key Themes for Imagining the Future
The technical office team explained that special attention will be given to proposals connected to five major thematic areas: cultural rights and citizenship; identity, memory and human mobility; cultural creation and circulation; sustainable territorial development; and democratic challenges and social cohesion.

These lines of work form the conceptual foundation upon which the cultural programme of the bid will be built and reflect some of the most pressing challenges facing contemporary societies from the perspective of island territories.

The presentation also highlighted that participation in this Open Call will enable applicants to join the bid’s database of cultural agents and gain access to future collaboration opportunities, cultural mediation initiatives, professional training programmes and international cooperation projects.

Through this new Open Call, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria reaffirms its commitment to a bid built on listening, diversity and collective participation, inviting the entire cultural sector to continue contributing to a proposal that aims to place both the city and the Canary Islands archipelago at the heart of Europe’s cultural conversation.