Conference "From Democratization to Cultural Democracy: Rethinking Institutions and Practices" Porto Santo, 27 April 2021

Exma. Madam Vice-President of the European Commission (online)

Exma. Madam Chief of Staff of the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth

Exma. Minister of Culture

Hon. Minister of Education, who is watching us online

Hon. Mr President of the Regional Government of Madeira

Hon. Mr. Regional Secretary for Tourism and Culture

Hon. Commissioner of the National Plan for the Arts

Dear Speakers, Guests and Participants

Welcome to the island of Porto Santo, the first land of the Portuguese discoveries and epic and also to the recently created UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. It was the uniqueness of our natural, biological and geological heritage, as well as the importance of our culture and history that contributed on a large scale to Porto Santo receiving this important award.

It was in this small corner of the Atlantic that, in 1418, the Portuguese navigators arrived who, lost in a storm, found a haven that saved their lives. We are an ultra-peripheral island, with more than 600 years of history, resilience, difficulties, but rich in stories, art and ingenuity of our local inhabitants and so much more to discover, in just 42 km².

We are all honored and grateful for the choice of our island to host this conference called "From democratization to cultural democracy: rethinking institutions and practices".

It is a great honor for me to be in this opening session, in this important event from which the PORTO SANTO CHARTER will emerge, a strategic document that will serve as a consensual guide for the dynamization of more democratic cultural policies and processes, in reinforcing the role of Arts, Heritage, Education.  

From the first hour, the Municipality of Porto Santo enthusiastically associated itself with the Ministry of Culture, the National Arts Plan and the Regional Government, in promoting a territorial project, associated with the National Arts Plan, which encompasses a old primary school, of social, cultural relevance and of extreme architectural importance.

For this reason, I believe, from the first moment, in the potential of this strategic plan "ESCOLA DO PORTO SANTO", and in this happy partnership that still involves the Associação Porta 33, in the shared vision of the creation, in the old School of the first cycle, of a headquarters of thought and artistic residencies, with a great impact on our local and regional community.

I believe that it is essential to debate and raise awareness of the urgency of transforming practices and promoting a cultural vision that values ​​PLURALISM, INCLUSION, SOCIAL COHESION AND CITIZENSHIP and also to think strategically about the role of policy crossing in the field of culture and education. We must all be led to reflect on the POWER OF THE ARTS, heritage and culture in the lives of citizens, especially in educational communities, as well as stimulating the development of cultural institutions in our educational territory.

I therefore congratulate the Ministry of Culture, the National Arts Plan and all its team, on the occasion of the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union, of this project and for the excellence of the organization of this conference, the high quality of its speakers and speakers and the choice of Porto Santo, for which I reiterate my deepest thanks.

I wish you all a good job and that the results of this discussion, which will come out in the form of a document " PORTO SANTO CHARTER", will be a unique, differentiating and fundamental element to place the "Golden Island" at the center of thinking about more democratic and cultural processes. raise, also, the Arts, Heritage and Education, to the level that should be at the center of public policies.

I believe that the island periphery, on the island of Porto Santo, is an asset, for this center of reflection and irradiation of cultural policies for Europe.

Well there! Thank you very much.