Fundación ONUART
On 24 April 2007, in a ceremony presided over by the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Miguel Ángel Moratinos Cuyaubé, Fundación ONUART was established in Madrid (ONU is the Spanish acronym for the United Nations Organization). Fundación ONUART is a private, non-profit agency with mixed public and private funding, whose main aims are to promote dialogue, through the use of Spanish contemporary arts to promote dialogue, to drive understanding between cultures and societies and to foster multilateralism in Geneva.

High Profile Patrons and Project Partners
Fundación ONUART is supported by long-term patrons and specific project partners. Under the Chairmanship of the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, many Spanish multinational companies are members of the Board of Trustees, such as Repsol, Telefónica, AGBAR, La Caixa, Indra, Hotetur Club, Caixa Catalunya, Mutua Madrileña, Caja España, Caixa Galicia and Fundación Banco Santander. Other key personalities on the Board of Trustees are Juan Antonio Samaranch, Honorary President of the International Olympic Committee, José Francisco Yvars, a well-known art historian and a former Director of the Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno, as well as other representatives of the Arts and Culture in the public sector, such as Miguel Zugaza, Director of the Prado Museum in Madrid, Ambassador Yago Pico de Coana, Chairman of the Spanish National Heritage, Manuel Borja Villel, Director of the Reina Sofía Museum, and José Jiménez, Director-General of Fine Arts and Cultural Goods at the Spanish Ministry of Culture.

Other public institutions and private companies have also joined Fundación ONUART, as Project Partners, in order to support its first major initiative for Room XX at the Palais des Nations. These are: the Autonomous Government of the Balearic Islands, Generalitat de Catalunya, Junta de Andalucía, Government of Asturias, Junta de Extremadura, Iberdrola, Caixa de Baleares ‘Sa Nostra’, CEIM (the Business and Industry Confederation of Madrid), Grupo Barceló and Fundación Ramón Areces.

Through its Consultative Council, Fundación ONUART is engaging in open and permanent dialogue with the heads of major multilateral organisations and international agencies based in Geneva, with a view to exploring the Foundation’s future projects and initiatives.

A Forum for Discussion
Fundación ONUART has been given a wide-ranging mandate which will provide a platform for the arts as a catalyst for dialogue and a driver of understanding between cultures and societies, thus promoting an ever more efficient multilateralism. In this regard and through the arts, Fundación ONUART will foster debate of the highest order, with a view to emphasising its role in the promotion of tolerance and understanding among States and cultures within all international organisations, transcending all differences through a lesser bureaucratic and conventional rapprochement in all negotiations and debates.