The Arpad Szenes Foundation - Vieira da Silva An international public competition will open on November 15th to choose the new director of the museum, in Lisbon, a source from the board of directors revealed today to the Lusa agency.
According to António Gomes de Pinho, president of the board of directors of the Arpad Szenes Foundation - Vieira da Silva (FASVS), "after reflecting on the model for choosing the future direction of the museum, it was decided to open a public competition and invite a jury made up of independent personalities".
To the management of the Arpad Szenes Museum - Vieira da Silva "people with appropriate training and experience who present a project and program for a three-year mandate that may be renewed for an identical period" may apply, according to FASVS.
"Our intention is to select someone who presents a vision and a project for the Foundation and in particular for the museum, with management capacity and a close relationship with the world of culture", described Gomes de Pinho to Lusa.
The objective is for the new direction to take office in February 2024, he indicated, in a process that arises following the departure of the art historian and curator Marina Bairrão Ruivo, who leaves FASVS today, where she was for 30 years, 17 as director.
The competition's jury included Raquel Henriques da Silva, a retired professor from Universidade Nova de Lisboa, art historian and curator, with long museum experience in the public and private sector, Teresa Gouveia, former Secretary of State for Culture and former -Minister of the Environment and Foreign Affairs, who also presided over the Serralves Foundation and was an administrator of the Gulbenkian Foundation.
Spanish curator Vicente Todolí, the first artistic director of the Serralves Museum, former director of Tate Modern in London, also former director of the Institut Valencià d'Art Modern (IVAM), and currently responsible for programming at the Hangar Center, was also invited. Bicoca - Pirelli Foundation, in Milan, Italy.
The competition will be officially opened on November 15th, with the respective announcement and regulations published in the press, on the FASVS online website and publicized on social media from that date onwards, with the reception of applications open until December 31st.
Marina Bairrão Ruivo - which accompanied the birth of the Foundation Vieira da Silva and the respective museum, opened in 1994 to study and publicize the work of the artist couple - she ceased her duties as director of the museum "by mutual agreement" in June this year, according to the administration, and at the time did not wish to comment on her departure.
For his part, the president of the foundation said that it is the administration's intention to continue to count on the curator's collaboration in future initiatives, namely, in 2024, for the celebrations of FASVS's 30th anniversary, with the holding of a major exhibition, and another, in collaboration with the Assembly of the Republic, on Vieira da Silva and Freedom, as part of the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the 25th of April.
In 2021, when jurist António Gomes de Pinho was reappointed by the Government as State representative on the board of directors of FASVS, Isabel Carlos, former director of the Center for Modern Art at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, was appointed to replace art historian Raquel Henriques da Silva, who asked to leave, at the time, after two terms.
The FASVS board of directors also includes, as vice-president, João Corrêa Nunes, representing the Fundação Cidade de Lisboa, Simonetta Luz Afonso, from the Lisbon City Council, and Rita Faden, from the Luso-American Development Foundation.
Appointed by the foundation's board of directors were José Manuel dos Santos and Vera Nobre da Costa.
The Arpad Szenes Museum-Vieira da Silva, managed by the foundation, was inaugurated on November 3, 1994, and its collection covers a vast period of the couple's painting and drawing production: from 1911 to 1985, for Arpad Szenes, and from 1926 to 1986, for Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, one of the most renowned Portuguese artists.