Learning from the American Fundraising Model: A European Perspective March 2014 | Page 18

06. thriving
in the midst
of crisis
Marisa Vázquez-Shelly,
Director of External Relations
and Patronage, Teatro Real (Spain),
Class of 2010
At a time when economic difficulties have
forced severe funding cuts at many Spanish
arts organizations, Madrid’s Teatro Real has
actually increased its number of corporate
sponsors. And this is despite the fact that Spain
has one of the least generous tax regimes for

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C ON V ERS A T I ONS

philanthropic gifts. “We have a fantastic story to
tell,” says Marisa Vázquez-Shelly, the theatre’s
director of external relations and patronage.
Not all of Spain’s institutions can say this.
During the boom times, dozens of art centers,
theatres and other cultural institutions were
built across Spain. “All the cities had their own
theatres, whether they had an audience or not,”
Vázquez-Shelly explains. “It was a symbol of
prosperity, and there was money for that.”
Since the onset of the Euro crisis and Spain’s