The board of directors of the Porto-based foundation emphasized in a statement that it is “a collegial body, made up of people with different life and professional paths, and it is not subject, nor has it ever been subjected, to internal or external pressures, thus it cannot accept any challenge to its independence and critical sense.”
In an interview with the newspaper Público, published online Thursday night and in today’s print edition, Isabel Pires de Lima criticized her predecessor as chair of the board, Ana Pinho, who became chair of the board of founders after three terms leading the administration. Pires de Lima suggested that Pinho was exerting pressure on the body she had left, affecting “the good health of Serralves.”
Among her criticisms, former Culture Minister Isabel Pires de Lima stated that Ana Pinho “demands what appears to be vassalage in her own fiefdom, to which [Pires de Lima] was not willing to submit.”
“I am aware that Dr. Ana Pinho is a person with a penchant for power, practicing a very centralized exercise of power. But I believed she would be chair of the board of founders and thus provide a normal transition, as happened with all other presidencies. I knew it would be difficult. What I did not expect was this type of difficulty,” the retired professor from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Porto told Público.
In her resignation statement citing a lack of “conditions of trust and institutional solidarity,” released Tuesday, Isabel Pires de Lima argued that “an art production space like Serralves must, at all times, provoke, unsettle, and question, or else it will just be a place for [people] too content with themselves, potentially stifling happiness that success brings.”
Today’s statement from the board reiterated “the excellent institutional relationship with the Board of Founders and its President, respecting their respective roles and levels of responsibility.”
Isabel Pires de Lima, chair of the board of the Serralves Foundation, announced her resignation this week due to a lack of “conditions of trust and institutional solidarity” necessary for the role.
Hours later, the Ministry of Culture, Youth, and Sports expressed “full confidence” in the Serralves Foundation.
“The Government stresses that Serralves is a solid foundation with a cultural program of national and international reference and maintains full confidence in the institution, which will, as always, ensure the continuation of its cultural mission with stability and continuity,” read a statement from the ministry of Margarida Balseiro Lopes, who had visited the Porto-based foundation along with other sector institutions in July.
Following the announcement of Isabel Pires de Lima’s departure, the foundation’s board appointed Fernando Cunha Guedes, executive president of Sogrape and former vice-president of the Porto institution, as interim president. The board also noted that it would reconvene to elect a new member of the body and a new president.
In addition to the interim president, the current board of the Serralves Foundation consists of Luís Silva Santos and Paula Paz Ferreira as vice-presidents, along with board members Manuel Sobrinho Simões, Tomás Jervell, Armando Cabral, Maria do Carmo Oliveira, and Luís Menezes.
