The PABLO NERUDA FOUNDATION is a private, not-for-profit institution, the custodian of the legacy and assets of the poet Pablo Neruda, winner of the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature.
It was set up in 1986 at the request of the poet’s widow, Matilde Urrutia, who in her will arranged for the creation of the Foundation, to which she bequeathed all her assets.
The mission of the Foundation is to protect, preserve and make known the poetic, artistic and humanist legacy of Pablo Neruda. To promote and support artistic and literary creation, especially in younger generations. To promote and facilitate meetings and dialogues between writers and artists linked to different forms of artistic expression. To establish links with related organizations, contributing to the accomplishment of these objectives.
The Foundation is in charge of Pablo Neruda’s three houses in Chile, today museum-houses: “La Chascona” in the Bellavista neighborhood of Santiago, “La Sebastiana” in Valparaíso, and “Isla Negra” on the central coast. The three houses are equipped to receive the general public, including tourists and students. They exhibit important collections (over 5,000 objects) and furniture, and take care to recreate the spaces just as the poet kept them. These Museum Houses were visited (in a normal year) by over 300,000 people (45% foreigners), many of them passionate followers of the work and life of the poet. The entrance tickets to the Museum houses, along with sales from the respective stores, have been the base of the financial livelihood of the Foundation since its creation, since they represent 95% of its profits. The profits from the rights of the author represent the remaining 5%. The Fundation does not receive funding from the State or private institutions.
The continuing relevance of Pablo Neruda’s poetry and person is demonstrated by the constant edition of his works in 43 languages, and by ongoing contracts with the major publishing houses of the world, with recent publications in China, Japan, France, Germany, Denmark, Italy and Turkey, to name a few countries. The copyrights for his work are represented by Carmen Balcells Agency in Barcelona.
The cultural activities and efforts to make Neruda’s works known constitute the heart of the Foundation’s activity. To develop it in the best way possible, cultural centers have been established in each museum-house, with an ongoing and wide variety of activities that have attracted an ongoing public: poetry readings, book launches, conferences, dialogues, theater performances, film screenings, art exhibitions, etc. These are free and open to the whole community.
The writing and poetry workshops have also been continuously active at the Foundation. Many of the most important contemporary voices in current Chilean poetry have participated in the workshop at La Chascona, founded in 1988. Each year 10 young poets are selected who attend the weekly sessions all year long, and receive a grant from this institution. The workshop at “La Sebastiana” is also a highlight of Valparaíso’s artistic scene, and gives support to its creators. In Isla Negra, along with a workshop of literary creation, there is a theater workshop that is highly appreciated by inhabitants of the area. For seven years, the Latin American Workshop has also taken place, whose participants are the winners of a poetry contest in Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia and Bolivia. The winners from these countries come to Chile, and along with the participants in the museum-house workshops, they make visits to the three houses and participate in activities and poetry readings at each one of them.
In addition, with the sponsorship of the Foundation, workshops have taken place in Temuco, Valdivia and Punta Arenas. Furthermore, five years ago at “La Sebastiana”, a Chilean Poetry Library was created with more than 5000 volumes, open to the public and specializing in classic and contemporary Chilean poetry. In terms of publications, the Foundation edits the magazines Cuaderno and Nerudiana, which feature half-yearly and annual issues that are distributed for free throughout the whole country. A variety of printed commemorative materials are also edited that correspond to important dates in both the work of Neruda and his biography. As for books, the Foundation has several lines of publication, for instance dedicated to current Chilean poets, and to rarer works of Neruda’s such as Crepusculario or Fulgor y muerte de Joaquín Murieta. In 2020, in preparation for 2021’s commemoration of 50 years since the Nobel Prize was awarded, an exhaustive project was carried out to edit the complete poetic work of Pablo Neruda, published in five volumes by Editorial Planeta.
The Foundation has also established many contests and awards. For the last eight years, a “Pablo Neruda Contest for High School Students” has taken place all across Chile. A reliable jury selects a winner and 10 honorary mentions from all regions of the country to come to “La Chascona” and receive their diplomas and awards, consisting of 30 selected books. The “The Pablo Neruda Prize for Young Poets” has also been awarded since 1987 to celebrate the work of an outstanding poet under forty years years old. It has been awarded, among others, to Gonzalo Millán, Teresa Calderón and Raúl Zurita. Also, since 1985 a scholarship has been awarded to the best student in their final year at Pablo Neruda High School in Temuco.
The Foundation also has a library with approximately 8,700 volumes in total, corresponding to books and magazines from the personal library of the poet, in addition to a collection of approximately 3,600 volumes, featuring both Neruda’s work and studies and essays about it. There is a valuable visual archive of posters of different kinds, related to ceremonies, theatrical performances and conferences about the poet carried out in different parts of the world. In addition, there is a collection of original engravings and artistic works by illustrators of Neruda’s works or people important in his life, by figures such as Delia del Carril, David Alfaro Siqueiros and Pablo Picasso, among numerous others.
The photographic archive of the Foundation includes 18,000 photographs from different stages of the poet’s life, showing his travels and political and cultural activities. The audiovisual archive includes over a thousand materials, including cassettes, vinyl albums, recordings of the poet’s voice, and films starting from 1950. All of these materials have been transferred to current platforms. These archives have served as a support for countless books and magazines in printed and electronic format, including important national and foreign publications.
The functioning of the Pablo Neruda Foundation and all its activities saw their earnings gravely affected starting 15 March 2020, due to the Covid pandemic. On that date the three museum houses and their offices were closed, and all in-person activities ceased. There was an attempt to reopen in December 2020, and the houses remained open until 28 February, but the number of visits reached 10% of the number usual for those dates, and revenue was therefore minimal.
Starting from 15 March 2020, a strong restriction of expenses was adopted. The salaries of the 58 employees was cut by 50%, avoiding any dismissals, without altering the costs of maintenance, upkeep and security at the three houses. All of the expenses incurred from that date through the current one have been settled with the savings of the Foundation, which are coming to an end, following a 15 month lack of revenue.
The cultural activities have remained ongoing at the webpage of the Foundation. This includes a newly created “Portal Cultura” (Culture Portal) which, along with the social networks, has continued to share information and run poetry workshops.
Due to this grave situation, important projects in the process of development have had to be postponed and suspended, especially two:
- CANTALAO
The Foundation is the owner and administrator of this 44,300 square meter property by the sea near Isla Negra, acquired by Pablo Neruda in 1970. The poet envisioned it as a big space for culture. Today it is an ecological and sculpture park in development, where the Foundation has projected two alternatives for a development master plan. They include interesting cultural projects that would respond to the deepest longings of the poet, who worked on this project personally, with a team of professionals, until his death.
2.- ESPACIO NERUDA
Conscious that Neruda’s life and work, his poetic gaze toward nature and mankind, and his vision of humanity have not been especially captured for visitors during the tours at the museum-houses, the idea of a museum dedicated to the poet was born. By coincidence, the Cimenta corporation was constructing a property in front of La Chascona dedicated to gastronomy and culture, and was offering an underground space of 1.000 square meters, with a height of five to six meters, and exclusive entry. The characteristics of this space lent themselves perfectly to this project. A contest was announced in 2018 for a project to develop an “Espacio Neruda” (Neruda Space) that gave an account of the diversity and variety of interests found in his work, including multimedia and immersive technologies. The jury of the competition was comprised of Beatriz Bustos, Director of La Moneda Cultural Center, Carlos Aldunate, President of the Precolombian Museum, Smiljan Radic, architect, Pablo Núñez, designer and Design professor at the University of Chile, and Raúl Bulnes, architect and President of the Pablo Neruda Foundation. In March 2019, this jury unanimously declared the winner of the project to be Pedro Silva Studio. During 2019 and 2020, investigative work was carried out by a group from the Foundation along with the winning Studio, and the finished project was submitted in March 2020.
The Space was conceived as an installation of audiovisual media, along with a center for the production of new contents to keep replacing and complementing those of the expository space. New capsules are also slotted for creation with a format suitable for traveling programs and exhibitions, national and international, in their totality or partially.
In these circumstances, we have initiated the process of making the Foundation’s grave situation known, and turning to corporations and public and private institutions with the aim of preserving its valuable heritage and continuing its cultural and educational activities.
Donations and contributions in the following bank account:
Fundación Pablo Neruda
Rut : 71.306.000-0
Cuenta corriente : 0-051-0200527-0
Clave : BSCHCLRM.
Banco Santander Santiago
Sucursal Ahumada, Santiago Centro
Calle Bombero Ossa N° 1040 piso 3.
