Fundación Bigott

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Infobox_Company
company_name = Fundación Bigott
company_
"Logo of the Fundación Bigott

company_type = Cultural
foundation = 1963
location = Caracas, Venezuela
industry = Promotion, development and encouragement of traditional Venezuelan culture in all its aspects
products = CDs, Magazines, Books, Promotion of the Venezuelan culture
revenue = non-profit
num_employees = non-profit
homepage = [http://www.fundacionbigott.com/flash_index.php?lang=ing Fundación Bigott official site]

Fundación Bigott is one of the most important private institutions in Venezuela; it is dedicated to preserving and making known making known the values of traditional culture.

History

Since our founding in 1963 by C.A. Cigarrera Bigott Sucs-- - a subsidiary of British American Tobacco--, - we have been carrying out an ongoing institutional venture through educational, cultural, agricultural and environmental programs. In 1981 Later on, and due to the need to expand, we decided in 1981, to concentrate our activities on the promotion, development and encouragement of traditional culture in all its aspects.

Our actions, focused on showing and disseminating making known the different expressions and content of Venezuelan traditions, has led us to establish a very solidreliable connectionlink between popular expression and the large national audiences.

We aim at becoming a model of participation and cultural integration, with our national idiosyncrasy as a referential point, thus promoting cultural identification with our country. With the Talleres de Cultura Popular (Popular Culture Workshops) we contribute to the creation training of a large group of students; we and also offer to the documentation and information on cultural manifestations that constitute our live heritage.

Through The special performing groups are the result of in the "Talleres de Cultura Popular" training endeavour, as they allow us to stage that disseminate the different cultural expressions of the Venezuelan tradition, through the mise en scene ofand show the creative diversity of popular expression, we have achieved the materialization of an earnest effort.

Likewise, our publications focus on the analysisresearch into traditional popular culture, reflection its analysis and registerr of traditional popular culture, through manuals, books, calendars and specially through the Revista Bigott (the "Bigott Mmagazine"), which has a wide circulation and is known throughout the world.

On the other hand, in the area of audiovisual communications we devised and developed television and radio programs in which the most diverse expressions of traditional art and culture are recreated and documented, thus contributing to their permanencee in time and space.

Mission

The institutional mission of Fundación Bigott is to promote and to disseminate make known traditional Venezuelan culture in all its aspects.

This mission has expanded in response to the demand for its products and services. Throughout the years, the Fundación Bigott has earned an indisputable decisive leadership in this field. The role of mediator that Fundación Bigott has carried out has allowed it to create programs that look to establishing a very solid bond between the sources of popular expression and large national audiences.

With its slogan Siente la tradición ("Feel the tradition"), Fundación Bigott reinforces its field of action.

Vision

Fundación Bigott's goal is to work towards the preservationpreserving and disseminationconveying theof Venezuelan cultural heritage, and aiming at becomingto become a principal reference in the study of Venezuela's popular culture.

Fundación Bigott aims at becoming turinng into a model of participation and cultural integration guided primarily by the in which recognition of the idiosyncrasy of Venezuelan people’s idiosyncrasy and its cultural identification with the country are its main goals. The approach for reaching this goal is developed through enthusiasm, pride and a sense of belonging.

Values such as teamwork, honesty, participation, unity, creativity and innovation complement the institution's proposal.

Goals

* To develop a sense of belonging in a national as well as a local scale.
* To assert national and local identities as cultural capital for the integration and consonant development of the country.
* To support and carry out research on expressions of popular Venezuelan culture and its validity and socio-historic context.
* To generate a permanent record for the conservation of the testimonial, written, photographic and audiovisual heritage.¨
* To offer programs in musical education for playing instruments, songs, dances and popular handicrafts through the Talleres de Cultura Popular.
* To maintain an editorial program that comprises series of books, specialized magazines, pamphlets for mass diffusion, and guides for educators with regional and national topics on traditional culture.
* To foment exchanges with local TV stations for the projection of documentaries on the musical expressions of traditional popular Venezuelan culture.
* To support national and international dissemination of musical as well as dance groups as representatives of traditional, popular Venezuelan culture.
* To offer technical cooperation for the development of informative, educational and communication programs that link tradition and modernity in Venezuela, through transactions with public and private institutions.
* To lend services on specialized information through its Documentation Center and through its web site :www.fundacionbigott.com
* To create new languages for bringing to attention the creative diversity of popular traditional expressions, in places such as schools, theaters and other social scenarios for the enjoyment and amusement of communities.
* To acknowledge the experiences carried out by the communities themselves which contribute to the social appropriation of their cultural heritage, through institutional support, or its dissemination in the media.