MAPAS is the first professional market for performing arts in the South Atlantic, a geographical space that includes Africa, Latin America and Southern Europe. Its first edition took place in Santa Cruz de Tenerife in July 2017, followed by the 2018 and 2019 editions, both in July and in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
The fourth edition scheduled for July 2020 had to be postponed due to health circumstances and was finally held from December 14 to 18, 2021, this time in the two capitals: Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Santa Cruz de Tenerife, thus acquiring a regional dimension. and involving all public administrations and their cultural organizations in a common goal.
After its successful edition held again in July 2022, the administrations and public bodies organizing the event have proposed a new biennial planning scheme that allows exploring more cooperative alliances and financing lines, thus responsibly undertaking a horizon for the model of cultural sustainability that is intended to be achieved from all strata.
The main objective of MAPAS is to promote a business culture in the performing arts by providing artists and programmers with a marketplace for business meetings, as well as a series of effective management tools so that they can generate, develop and consolidate synergies in the sector.
To fulfil its mission, MAPAS is organised around several key activities: showcase performances, business meetings, training sessions and networking events.
The artistic samples are exhibitions of some shows, selected among those that are present in the Market Business Roundtables (concerts, theater or dance and circus performances). These are performances open to the general public and with the participating professionals, carried out in different cultural spaces of reference in the host cities, with a program prepared by a group of specialized international curators, who make a selection from all the proposals presented.
These exhibitions will be framed within the 2024 programming and will take place in leading cultural spaces in Gran Canaria and Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
At its heart, MAPAS is a commercial platform that aims to facilitate collaborative alliances for theatre, dance, circus, street arts and music shows of all kinds. The market is based on networking events enabling direct interaction between artists and booking, management or distribution agencies, cultural agents and programmers.
Participants are able to schedule 12-minute appointments that bring together the supply (artistic groups and their representatives) and demand (programmers at cultural venues, festivals or events) side of the industry to exchange ideas, reach agreements and close deals.
Registration, evaluation, selection and management of the agenda, as well as access to information on participating companies, artists and programmers, is done through the private area on the MAPAS website, which will be available later.
Networking events are a key component of MAPAS. The scheduling platform developed by the organisers has played a large part in the market’s international success.
Training is one of the fundamental pillars of MAPAS and will be the substantial section of the 2023 programming. An offer in several phases that aims to provide rigorous and broad spaces for training and increasing the value chain of the culture industry. To this end, tools will be offered to help strengthen the business fabric and innovation.
Alongside regular opportunities to exchange experiences, these activities reinforce the market’s commitment to training as one of its main objectives, promoting and strengthening initiatives relating to the performing arts and music, increasing their visibility and encouraging the launch of new artistic proposals.
At most social events, what brings us closer together are our conversations. As well as the organised events, MAPAS also offers creative spaces where discussions don’t necessarily need to revolve around serious or work-related issues. These spaces simulate a friendly meal or coffee in good company.
