The Portuguese Museum Network (RPM) will integrate five new institutions, totalling 156 members, according to a dispatch published today in Diário da República.
[dropcap type=”background”]S[/dropcap]igned by the Minister of Culture, Graça Fonseca, the official document approves the accreditation of the following institutions: Museum of the Hospital Center of Oporto, Museum of Water Roque Gameiro in Minde, National Railway Museum, Entroncamento, Health Museum in Lisbon, and José de Guimarães International Arts Center, in Guimarães.
The publication comes two days after Graça Fonseca announced that the Government wants to relaunch the RPM, with the integration of more spaces, and reactivate the program ProMuseus, interrupted several years ago.
In the order issued today, Graça Fonseca considers that this accreditation and consequent integration in RPM “are factors of promotion of access to culture and enrichment of the Portuguese cultural heritage“.
The five new museums “meet the legal requirements and meet all the conditions” so that they can integrate the Museum Network.
According to the website of the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage, the ceremony of adhesion of the five museums will take place on April 4, at the Ajuda National Palace in Lisbon.
“The General Directorate of Cultural Heritage welcomes the accession of new institutions to the Portuguese Museums Network, which is 2019 will integrate 156 museums officially recognized for their technical quality in the fulfilment of museum functions.” points out that, since the last accession ceremony took place in 2014, there will also be represented the museums that have joined RPM ever since.
The Portuguese Museum Network is an organized system of museums, based on voluntary adhesion, progressively configured and aimed at decentralization, mediation, qualification and cooperation between institutions.
The accreditation of the institutions consists in the evaluation and official recognition of the technical quality of museums, “evaluating the Portuguese museological reality in respect for the differences of the existing museums, with objectives of enhancing the quality and enjoyment of Portuguese cultural heritage in all its diversity and wealth, “reads on the website of the Directorate General of Cultural Heritage.
