Lanzarote, César Manrique and the Creation of the Art, Culture and Tourism Centres, 1960–1976

Abstract

Between 1960 and 1976, during the first stage of the development of mass tourism in Spain, the island of Lanzarote experienced the creation of a network of publicly owned spaces in which natural and cultural values intrinsic to the environment were combined, with artistic interventions in various disciplines: architecture, sculpture, design, interior design and landscaping, among others, the Art, Culture and Tourism Centres (CACT). The primary purpose of these centres was to encourage the arrival of visitors from the new tourism industry and thus improve the difficult socio-economic conditions of the population. It was an initiative whose aesthetic leadership was assumed by artist Cesar Manrique, while the political, labour and budget agenda corresponded to the Cabildo of Lanzarote, the main local public institution on the island. In this research, we briefly browse the guidelines of the artistic work of Manrique, already studied greatly through the history of art, to focus on the objectives and dimensions that this programme had from the perspective of public administration and as a pioneering experiment in the combination of tourism, public art and geography. Likewise, some of its social and economic consequences and in the minds of residents and visitors of the island are mentioned.