Who are we?

Region. Culture. Territory. Cohesion. To understand and project La Marina Alta from its own potential. The grouping of municipalities known as MACMA was born with very clear objectives; convinced of the need to establish a cultural policy of cooperation, the intention from the very start was to achieve the following goals:

• The dissemination of a regional events programme.
• The use and promotion of the region's existing resources.
• The creation of new exchange spaces that generate dynamization processes within the competencies defined by the entity's statutes.

MACMA is made up of all the municipalities of La Marina Alta.

The entity was legally constituted on October 25th, 1997, and initially consisted of 15 municipalities: Alcalalí, Benissa, Castell de Castells, Dénia, Gata de Gorgos, Murla, Ondara, Orba, Pedreguer, Pego, El Poble Nou de Benitatxell, Sagra, La Vall de Laguar, El Verger and Xàbia.

By April 1998, when the first MACMA Cultural Guide was published, just a few months after the legal creation of the MACMA entity, 8 more municipalities had already joined: L'Atzúbia, Benidoleig, Benimeli, Parcent, Els Poblets, El Ràfol d'Almúnia, Teulada and Xaló. This meant that there were already 23 municipalities involved in the project.

In November 1998, Beniarbeig, Sanet i Els Negrals and Tormos were incorporated. In April 1999, Benigembla, Llíber, Senija, La Vall d'Alcalà, La Vall d'Ebo and La Vall de Gallinera also joined. Just one year after the publication of the first guide, we had gone from 15 to 32 municipalities. Only Calp was missing, but it would also end up joining.

Twenty years later, the entity has expanded its statutes to include areas of its scope and interest, such as Tourism, since 2014, understood transversally and from a regional perspective. Since 2016, the area of Youth has also been a part of the MACMA ideology, through the so-called Xarxa Jove Marina Alta (Marina Alta Youth Network) with its own internal regulations based on the administrative structure of the MACMA entity, set up so as to demonstrate the importance and strategic power of uniting resources.

Finally, in 2019, we began the process of launching a new expansion which would incorporate the fields of education and sports within the framework of the grouping of municipalities, creating the sports network called Xarxa Esportiva Marina Alta, with a structure very similar to that of the Youth area, aiming to coordinate and energise regional sports for school-age children, mainly through school leagues and regional championships.

With the appearance of the Generalitat's new law 21/2018 regarding the Valencian Community's groupings of municipalities, passed in 2018 on October 16th, our entity began in 2020 the procedures for drafting and adapting the new statutes that changed it from being Mancomunitat Circuit Cultural Marina Alta to Mancomunitat Comarcal Marina Alta, with the consequent predisposition to activate all areas of collective and municipal interest in the various fields which were deemed appropriate.

What do we do?

From the MACMA entity we work to structure the region through culture. This field of action encompasses various areas and competencies:

• Preparation of the monthly regional cultural guide
   
• Joint archives services
   
• The “La Marina Alta” regional library
   
• Regional youth information points
   
• Advice and support for the MACMA municipalities with regards to the following matters:
  
  • Linguistic advice
  • Query and advice service related to patrimonial and historical topics
  • Cultural management
  • Sustainable tourism
  • Youth dynamization
  • Sports promotion (coming soon)
     
• Published material:
  
  • The calendar known as “El Calendari dels Brillants”
  • Ethnography
  • Gastronomy
  • History
  • Philology
  • Literature
     
• Editing and collaboration in audiovisual productions
   
• Coordination and development of MACMA's own projects:
  • The Theatre in Schools Campaign throughout the region of La Marina Alta
  • Coordination of the Regional Fair of La Marina Alta
  • A meeting of poets from La Marina and Ibiza (organised together with Fundació Baleària)
  • The Young Promises of La Marina Alta Contest
  • Youth Art in La Marina
  • A guide to cultural, youth and sports resources
  • A guide to cultural, youth and sports infrastructures
  • A Leisure Network Catalogue of La Marina Alta
  • A regional illustration contest
  • Training in dry stone construction and recovery of the trade
     
•  Coordination of pooled materials and resources for municipal use:
  • Exhibit infrastructure for exhibitions
  • Screens and projectors
  • Sound equipment
  • Travelling exhibitions set up by MACMA
     
• Active collaboration in municipal cultural projects (from coordinating artistic juries to participating in award ceremonies)
   
• Collaboration with institutions and the regional business network to facilitate the joint management of events and of cultural, youth and sports projects
   
• Xarxa Jove Marina Alta: institutional tasks and support for the Governing Council of the youth network of La Marina Alta
   
• Xarxa Esportiva Marina Alta: Coordination and promotion tasks related to sports matters (regional leagues and Minijocs), as well as institutional support for the Governing Council of the sports network of La Marina Alta – coming soon
   
• Development of a network for working jointly in the field of Tourism
   
• A training service for cultural, youth and sports matters
  • Organisation and coordination of conferences
  • Training sessions in the educational field