Historical Overview

CIT or Centro de Iniciativas de Tolosa (Tolosa Initiative Centre) was founded on 23 May 1967 as a private non-profit-making cultural association which aimed to promote and foster culture and knowledge in the town of Tolosa. In 1994, it was declared an Association of Public Usefulness.

Throughout its long history, the association has managed to involve thousands of local inhabitants in its activities. Working on a voluntary basis, these people have carried out all types of work, from very simple tasks to extremely complicated undertakings involving much responsibility, all with the aim of ensuring the success of the centre’s various projects. Thanks to their generosity and hard work, CIT has won a number of different prizes, including the Spanish First Prize for Tourist Initiative Centres in 1970 and the Basque Country Tourism Award in 1989.

Since its foundation, CIT has played a key role in Tolosa’s culture life, and during its early years, the association was responsible for organising the majority of the cultural events and festivals that took place in the town. For many years now, however, the centre has focused its efforts on events of a markedly international nature, or those which have something new to bring to our country’s cultural scene.

To celebrate its 25th anniversary, CIT worked in collaboration with the local council to set up a permanent exhibition-museum of open-air sculptures, which is designed as a gift to the citizen’s of Tolosa. This urban collection currently includes sculptures by Jorge Oteiza (Triángulo Square), Ricardo Ugarte (Provincial Archives), Nestor Bastarrechea (Emeterio Arrese), Anta (Arramele Bridge) and Tomas Hernandez Mendizabal (Bullring).

For many years now, CIT has been working on an ambitious project aimed at setting up in Tolosa an International Puppet Centre and a Centre for the Dissemination of Choral Music, which would include a documentation centre, a museum, areas for theatre performances or rehearsals and a modern stage which, in addition to the Centre’s own activities, would also serve as the venue for the majority of activities which make up the town’s thriving cultural agenda.