The Mariantònia Oliver Company has just received the Toni Catany ARA Balears Culture award, but the person it is named after has been paving the way through dance for over three decades, in the Balearics and abroad. Mariantònia Oliver, an essential choreographer and dancer, has turned the body into a language and dance into a tool for thought and social transformation.

When a family from the Islands receives the news that they must leave their home and go to Barcelona for one of them to receive treatment, the illness stops being the only problem. Another race begins: finding a place to sleep, managing work, and learning to live with uncertainty. For more than 20 years, the Association for Aid to the Patient's Companion (ADAA) has been alleviating this burden with a silent and constant task that this year has earned it the ARA Balears Colonya Caixa Pollença Award for Social Action.

The Agermanat Correllengua that took place this spring has left a mark that many will not forget. For two weeks, the Flame of the Language crossed the Catalan-speaking territories in an unprecedented mobilization that brought together more than 180,000 people, covered 1,500 kilometers, passed through 500 municipalities, and had 30,000 flame bearers. The success and triumph of this young, positive, and pioneering initiative, as valued by the jury, has made it worthy of the Guillem Frontera ARA Balears Award for Commitment to the Catalan Language 2026. At the award ceremony, the very long and intense applause received by the two organizers, Pau Emili Muñoz and Josep Buades, was a demonstration of popular recognition.

The linguist Joan Veny i Clar (Campos, 1932) has received the highest academic and civil distinctions. Among other recognitions, he is Doctor Honoris Causa by the universities of Valencia and the Balearic Islands; he has received the Medal of Honor from the Xarxa Vives d’Universitats, the Creu de Sant Jordi, the prize of Honor of Catalan Letters, the Pompeu Fabra prize, the Gold Medal of the Balearic Islands. He is also an Illustrious Son of Campos (where the Infant and Primary school also bears his name). Now that the great work for the Catalan language, the Linguistic Atlas of the Catalan Domain, has been completed, the dialectologist has received the Special ARA Balears prize.

During recess, amidst running, games, and improvised conversations, the teachers at CEIP Ses Rotes Velles have begun to notice a scene that just a few years ago would have seemed improbable. Some children who usually speak Spanish or who come from families where Catalan is not spoken have started to interact with each other in this language. "In the playground, we've heard children from Early Childhood Education speaking Mallorcan amongst themselves," explains the school's director, Joana Maria Mas. This image summarizes the essence of the project How do we learn to be capable of explaining what we do, think, and feel?, which has made language a central focus of the school and which has been recognized with the Bartomeu Picornell Education award.

L’Aljub d'Es Baluard brought together more than 300 people this Monday to celebrate the thirteenth edition of the ARA Balears awards, an event that, year after year, recognizes initiatives, entities, and careers that contribute to a more cohesive society, committed to culture, and rooted in the territory. Institutional, political, economic, social, and cultural representatives attended the event, as well as friends and collaborators of the newspaper, led by the Vice President of the Government, Antoni Costa, and the President of ARA, Ferran Rodés.

The Correllengua Agermanat has been distinguished with the ARA Balears Guillem Frontera Award for Commitment to Catalan, an award convened for the first time in 2025 that pays homage to the Majorcan writer and recognizes initiatives that make the language a pillar of cohesion and the future.

Quesería Menorquina has been distinguished with the ARA Balears award for Economic Initiative, a recognition of the recovery and transformation trajectory of one of the most emblematic companies in the agri-food sector of the Islands.

The Association for Aid to the Patient's Companion of the Balearic Islands has been distinguished with the Colonya Caixa Pollença Award for Social Action of the ARA Balears Awards, an award that recognizes projects with a direct impact on improving people's lives and, especially, the most vulnerable groups.

The company Mariantònia Oliver has been distinguished with the Toni Catany de Cultura award at the ARA Balears Awards, a recognition of a career of more than thirty-five years that has decisively contributed to growing, understanding, and sharing contemporary dance in the Islands.

The CEIP Ses Rotes Velles has been awarded the ARA Balears Bartomeu Picornell Education prize, an award that recognizes initiatives capable of advancing the educational system of the Balearic Islands with projects that improve equity, foster critical thinking, and strengthen the link with the educational community.

The ARA Balears awards return in 2026 to recognize, once again, projects and careers that improve these Islands and the world. Within the framework of the newspaper's thirteenth anniversary and its ninth edition, these awards aim to highlight innovative and transformative initiatives in key areas such as education, culture, social action, commitment to the Catalan language, and economic activity.