Sponsorship and culture

Through this programme Fundación Caja Madrid carries on diverse cultural activities, directly or in partnership with other institutions.

The Foundation’s main publishing project is its monthly book review Revista de Libros, which in 2008 reached issue number 144. The main novelty during the year was the launch of an online edition.

As part of its institutional collaboration with Madrid government bodies, Fundación Caja Madrid joined for the first time in organising the “La Noche en Blanco” cultural initiative, and continued its strong support for Madrid's candidacy to host the 2016 summer Olympic Games, two key projects led by the municipal government of Madrid. During 2008 the Foundation also sponsored the activities of the "May 2nd Foundation: Nation and Liberty” organised by the regional government to commemorate the historic uprising of 2 May 1808 and the Constitution of Cádiz of 1812 with publications, exhibitions, concerts and theatre.

The Fundación Caja Madrid exhibitions programme was initiated in 1997 with the idea of organising and hosting shows that imprint their identity on  the historical Sala de las Alhajas building.

Since 2003 the Foundation has co-organised major modern and contemporary art exhibitions with the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation. The cultural service spawned by this alliance has achieved major international recognition and success for the superb quality of its art shows.

The exhibition "Dürer and Cranach. Art and Humanism in Renaissance Germany", which received a total of 218,058 visitors at its two sites, 98,500 of whom visited Fundación Caja Madrid, ended early in the year.

Other major shows included:

• The “Modigliani and His Times” exhibition was visited by a total of 406,407 persons, with the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum receiving 226,355 visits and Fundación Caja Madrid 180,052, making the show the most popular of all of the joint exhibitions organised by the two institutions.
• The year's third exhibition “1914!. The Avant-Garde and the Great War” closed out the year in the Sala de las Alhajas, with 151,063 visitors attending the two sites, more than 80,000 at the Fundación Caja Madrid.

The joint programme run by the Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection Foundation and Fundación Caja Madrid proved extremely popular once again in 2008 and was widely saluted for its quality contribution to the city's dynamic cultural life. The outstanding shows are also accompanied by a rich lineup of educational activities, guided tours and art workshops for children.