According to the Annual Declaration of the Directorate-General for the Arts for 2025, the support program was expected to open by the end of September, but the joint ordinance from the Culture and Finance ministries authorizing the amount was only published on Monday.
The ordinance was signed on September 12 by the Secretary of State for Culture, Alberto Santos, but not until October 8 by the Deputy Secretary of State for the Budget, José Maria Brandão de Brito.
This marks the second edition of the support program for projects of the Portuguese Contemporary Art Network (RPAC), which initially covered 19 initiatives from entities such as Culturgest, the Elvas Museum of Contemporary Art, the Madeira Museum of Contemporary Art, the Biennial of Cerveira, the Appleton Association, and Theatro Circo.
In the support program, which also opened at the end of 2023 with an allocation of two million euros, five applications did not receive support.
According to RPAC’s website, the network aims to establish itself as “a structure that gathers all the creation and production of Portuguese contemporary art and supports artists and creators, as well as public and private promoters,” in addition to establishing itself as “a network that enhances the national and international dissemination of Portuguese artists and creators and the various public and private collections existing in Portugal.”
Currently, it comprises 73 entities that encompass 82 facilities and 52 collections.
On Monday and Tuesday, the Directorate-General for the Arts will host the second meeting of the RPAC in Santo Tirso, during which the projects supported in the first edition of the support program will be presented, as well as this second edition.
