The Cristobal Gabarron Foundation (CGF) gets its name from the Valladolid artist who has for more than a decade believed, along with his family and various international corporations, this institution to be a place for fostering ideas that traditionally have exemplified his career: to defend, promote, and spread art, science and knowledge itself.
Since then the Foundation has been working constantly in favor of the training and outreach in a wide range of both artistic and scientific disciplines, helping to build a better future for our society based on the belief that a more educated society is a freer and better society.
As the headquarters of the CGF, a building chosen from the late nineteenth century, which sits on an ancient Renaissance palace, fully restored and brought back to the splendor of the stone and brick and the frescos that adorn the walls, thus contributing to the restoration of the historic city of Valladolid.
In January of 2003 the Foundation relocated to a new building designed specifically at addressing the needs of the institution. The result was a joint collaboration of three architects – Juan Yacer, José María Llanos and Juan Carlos Urdiaín – and Cristóbal Gabarrón himself, who conceived of the sculptural copper finish that crowns the building, giving it a special artistic identity to the whole construction. S.A.R. Queen Sofia honored the inauguration of the building on November 7, 2002.
Today, the CGF develops its cultural and educational activities through University Education – through its school of Protocol and Restoration - creating exhibitions – permanent and temporary, in order to promote many exhibitions, and promoting both traveling and young artists exhibitions, and those of major international prestige; children’s workshops to promote the creativity among the young people; through the Queen Sofia Children’s Art Museum, spreading a range of related activities for children’s education, such as contests, workshops…; the Valladolid Planetarium each year has many fans and visitors; the Film Festivals-Artfutura, Resfest and Festcine- transmit the most up to date art of the twenty-first century; the publisher Alto Duero publishes books throughout the world, the CGF collections are exhibited in turn in other national and international museums; the art shop is an icon that maintains the memory of the visit for the museum visitor; the International Awards of the CGF after 4 years have established themselves as a cultural and social landmark in the international arena in its nine categories; the Institute of Spanish Language educates by passing on the foreign language, but also the culture; the SIR is a center and laboratory for the recovery of heritage through its restoration.
This culture diffusion has led to the development of other foundations: The Gabarron Foundation, in New York, inaugurated by the Hon. Minister of the Presidency of the Spanish Government, Mr. Juan José Lucas Giménez, on the 22 of February, 2002, and the most recent establishment of La Casa Pintada Foundation in Mula (Murcia) inaugurated by their Royal Highnesses, the Prince and Princess of Asturias, on the 8 of June, 2005.
The great workforce of the three foundations and its collaborators around the world make it possible each year to spread more and more all over the world the seed of the values of the artist who inspires our foundations in a world that is increasingly in need of culture and education.