The exhibition ‘A model for the world: 30 years of Ponte… nas Ondas!’ was inaugurated on 5 November at the Claustro Alto of the Colegio de Fonseca, marking three decades of a collective initiative that has turned school radio into a vibrant connection between Galicia and Portugal. This project has empowered thousands of children to actively share their common identity.
Organised by the Cultural and Educational Association Ponte… nas Ondas! (PNO), the exhibition will remain open until 20 November as part of the Otoño Cultural 2026 programme. The opening ceremony featured speeches from Ana Cabana Iglesias, Vice-Rector for Culture, Language and Heritage at the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC); Ángel Miramontes, General Director of Cultural Heritage for the Xunta de Galicia; and Santiago Veloso, President of Ponte… nas Ondas!
Set in a location as symbolic as Fonseca, which completes the educational cycle of a project spanning from early childhood to higher education, the exhibition invites visitors to explore the formula that led to PNO's inclusion in the UNESCO Register of Good Safeguarding Practices for Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2022. This formula combines education, heritage, communication, and new technologies.
Rather than a static display, the exhibition is designed as an interactive experience where the public can listen, see, and engage with the Galician-Portuguese cultural memory through QR codes, audio and video archives, illustrations, and a touchscreen interface.
The narrative begins on 29 March 1995, when sixteen schools from both sides of the River Miño celebrated the inauguration of the international bridge between Salvaterra and Monção with a historic twelve-hour school radio broadcast. Through a timeline and documentary materials from that era, visitors can discover how the first antenna, hung on a pole, evolved from cassette tapes to the first internet broadcast in 1997, ultimately leading to the current “radiovisual” concept—a hybrid digital format that enhances school participation.
Santiago Veloso explained that this technological leap has always served a pedagogical purpose: “to bring heritage into the classroom so that young people stop being passive recipients of information and take the microphone themselves.” The exhibition illustrates how students research and disseminate their local language, traditional trades, folk tales, and oral literature through initiatives like the Oral Tradition Collection Competitions and the photographic contest ‘Images of Heritage.’
One outcome of this work with family albums is ‘Memory and Heritage (The voices of images),’ a project that visitors can explore at Fonseca via a touchscreen that combines old photographs, student texts, podcasts, and comics. The exhibition also highlights the association's extensive editorial, musical, and theatrical activities, including works like the audiobooks ‘Meniños Cantores,’ ‘Colores del Atlántico,’ and the recent ‘Galician-Portuguese Songbook.’ It advocates for a shared culture without borders that connects Galicia and northern Portugal with the broader Lusophone world through events like the Oral Tradition Exhibitions.
A pivotal moment in this collective effort occurred in 2004 with the Galician-Portuguese Intangible Heritage nomination to UNESCO, uniquely driven by schools in both countries. Over the past thirty years, the initiative has garnered support from notable figures such as Caetano Veloso, Margareth Menezes, Francisco Fernández del Riego, Julia Otero, and Rexina Vega.
True to PNO's philosophy of learning by doing, the exhibition features a small radio set installed in the university chapel. Here, students from visiting educational institutions will participate in practical workshops to record their own podcasts about heritage until 20 November.
The exhibition is coordinated by Santiago Veloso, with texts and documentation by Roberto Noguerol, graphic design by Andrés Meixide, exhibition design by Lía González, video production by Casa de Tolos, workshops led by Damián Alonso, linguistic review by Uxía Iglesias, and production by José Manuel Diego. It also includes a mediation service and guided tours managed by Closet Comunicación. The project is funded by the Ministry of Culture and the Xunta de Galicia, with institutional collaboration from USC as part of its Otoño Cultural 2026 programme.
