Serralves and the National Ballet Company can lose money with the MAAT – Observer

Will be that the entry into operation of the MAAT – Museum of Art, Architecture, and Technology means less money is available for the policy of cultural sponsorship of the EDP Foundation? Before the question of the Observer, Miguel Coutinho admits reductions. But says the institution will "continue to be a patron, very relevant."

"I can Not guarantee that there is no here or there, a hit," says the administrator, and the director-general of the EDP Foundation.

The hits would be bad news for institutions such as the National Ballet Company, Foundation Serralves Foundation Arpad Szenes-Vieira da Silva, or the House of Music, which are among some of the beneficiaries of the patronage of the EDP Foundation.

In the cause may also be a reduction in the value of the two awards created by the foundation: a Great Prize and Art Prize for New Artists.

The annual allocation of 14 million euro for sponsorship has not been increased and will now be divided with the MAAT. Miguel Coutinho has not entered into details as to such adjustments.

The museum of lisbon, whose opening spread is scheduled for Wednesday, 5, represented a cost of approximately 20 million euros, according to António Mexia, chairman of the board of directors of the electric Portuguese. Will have two million euros per year for exhibitions.

The project includes the former Central Tejo (or the Museum of Electricity), with exhibitions of the art conventional, and a new building next door, designed by architect Amanda Levete, to works of the avant-garde.

We will continue, certainly, to support institutions that to us are very relevant. We will continue to do exhibitions, both in the Central Tagus as in MAAT, and obviously we’ll try to do all of this with the same money. This requires you to be more efficient and even more strict in the management of the money that the shareholders and the companies of the EDP group give us every year, which is 14 million euro", explained the director-general. "With an efficient management and the right choices we will continue to have a very important role".

Ex-journalist, Miguel Coutinho is in EDP since 2012, and in January took over the general direction of the EDP Foundation, after the departure of Sérgio Figueiredo

Referring to another area in which EDP Foundation acts – social support for the elderly, children, homeless people, unemployed people, Miguel Coutinho said he has been made "a huge effort" to maintain this support, which amounted to 2.1 million euros per year. "Huge effort because we today do much more things with the same budget, we have not had an increase in budget", has, in statements to the Observer, during the presentation of MAAT, on Monday.

The same responsible felt that the museum "is a work for stay." Referring to the architecture of the new building, whose roof passable serves as the viewpoint, said that the museum "returns to the city of Lisbon, the relationship with the river."

The director-general of the EDP Foundation understands that the MAAT is not going to do competition to other institutions of contemporary art in Portugal, the Berardo Museum, the Gulbenkian Museum or Serralves.

THE MAAT is complementary of the other museums. We will have many exhibitions and debates around the contemporary culture and the impact of art, architecture, and technology in the lives of people," said Coutinho. "There is no other museum in Portugal in this field. We have a different proposal and complement that does not take away the value, appends to what already exists."