Madalena de Azeredo Perdigão (1923-1989) was the director first of the Music Department and later of the Entertainment, Artistic Creation and Education through Art Department (ACARTE) of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. She played a pivotal role in structuring the Foundation’s contribution to the Performing Arts field from the very beginning and her legacy can still be felt to this day.

As the head of the Music Department, she helped introduce structural policies to establish new paradigms in advanced vocational training, internationalization, contemporaneity, and the promotion of heritage.

As the head of ACARTE, she was responsible for major innovations in cultural programming by introducing new critical readings of the art canon, interdisciplinarity, multiculturalism, and cultural mediation strategies.

She played a fundamental role in the Foundation’s direct impact on Portugal’s art world as well as in the reorganization of Art Education in the Ministry of Education and the Portuguese Association of Music Education. She is thus a crucial figure for a better understanding of the arts in Portugal in the second half of the twentieth century and for reflecting on their role in building a democratic society and promoting sustainable development.

The exhibition Madalena de Azeredo Perdigão: we will take risks seeks to document all these aspects of the career and legacy of an exceptional personality in the Portuguese cultural world.