In this New Year, when I address readers of our Newsletter for the very first time as President of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, I would begin by emphasising my very strong conviction that the Foundation shall remain a benchmark reference for philanthropic and cultural institutions, open to the world and dedicated towards building a less unequal and more sustainable society.
I am certain that all Foundation collaborators are deeply motivated towards this goal and finding in their daily actions a source of personal and professional self-fulfilment, thereby honouring the responsibility handed down to us by our Founder, a figure who still today inspires us.

This year marks the beginning of a new cycle of programming for the next five years resulting from a process of strategic reflection about the Foundation’s activities that involved all the sectors and members of staff as well as external figures and experts.
According to the new programmatic lines, the three main transversal priorities to all of the Foundation are Cohesion and Integration, Knowledge and Sustainability.
The new priorities shall also take shape in a different way of working – the Gulbenkian Programs shall strive to pre-empt future problems with their respective resolutions ensuring the Foundation may effectively bring added value, working in a transversal approach and with ever more collaborative leadership.

I take due pleasure in noting how the 2018 programs for the Museum and Music Cycle reflect the civic role of the arts and concern over the integration of those most vulnerable. Furthermore, I see with equal pleasure the reinforcement of the PARTIS Program, an excellent instrument for fostering inclusion through art, a project that has now spread across the country.
The policy of maintaining the national coverage of Foundation activities, which the recent partnership with the Soares dos Reis National Museum for the Almada Negreiros exhibition is but one example, boosts the commitment of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, across its various different facets, to reach out beyond its own doors. This also plans for the incorporation of works from both the Founder’s Collection and the Modern Collection into exhibitions mounted by museums and cultural centres across our country alongside the continuation of concerts by the Gulbenkian Orchestra and Choir at a truly national level, a project we have termed “Gulbenkian Touring”. This is also the year when, for the first time, the Modern Collection is on display permanently throughout every area of its building that enables deeper and farther reaching knowledge about the Portuguese art of the 20th century.
These are but some of the examples that shall undoubtedly contribute towards our efforts to return greater social impacts from our interventions.

The Gulbenkian Forum for Reflection and Debate is now operating, designed to position the Foundation as a centre of prospective thinking and analysis, framing the problem of Portugal with those of Europe and the world. Its activities are under development in partnership with leading international foundations, think tanks, research institutions and universities.

For 2018, I would highlight the recently announced renewal of the EEA Grants program with this edition running in partnership with the Bissaya Barreto Foundation, which conveys the recognition and the responsibility for the management of external funds for strengthening and deepening non-governmental organisations.

The Gulbenkian Science Institute will also embark on a new phase in its life over the course of this year with the scientific project that its new director is planning for development: biomedical research in fundamental areas with a focus on obtaining results for clinical application and the resolution of other problems faced by society. The opening of new partnerships, the interrelationships ongoing with peer institutions and communicating science also feature as components of this new project.

2018 is the European Year of Cultural Heritage, which provides the opportunity to focus our actions on this field in close cooperation with other European foundations. The Foundation correspondingly seeks to still further deepen its internationalisation across more domains in which culture constitutes the bond of connection among citizens.

I would also refer to the reunification of the Santa Gertrudes Park, that took place at the end of last year and is to enable the Foundation to, by the end of this year, open a tender for ideas for its development and that shall endow the Gulbenkian Park with a new central axis along with a new entranceway on Rua Marquês de Fronteira.

Naturally, the entirety of this programming assumes that the safeguarding of our heritage remains our core responsibility, always striving to attain the very best economic and financial returns from Foundation investments in the service of the common good.

As stated in the speech marking the beginning of my mandate, the Foundation is searching for increasingly strategic interventions and ever closer to those most vulnerable. This role has received widespread recognition among the Portuguese as we have indeed encountered during actions in the terrain and providing support to the victims of the forest fires that happened last year. We do this due to our mission and with the capacities that have been built up over the years while interacting and building bridges with other institutions.

The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation sets about building on a daily basis, loyal to its mission and statutory objectives, valuing our own history and legacy, open to innovation and change and with our eyes very much set on the future.
I consider belonging to the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation represents a priceless privilege due to the nature of its mission, the elevation of its goals and the values that structure them.
I would therefore wish that the year of 2018 brings all of the strength and trust essential to us giving the best that we know and valuing everything that we have on behalf of the Institution we represent.

Happy New Year to you all!

Isabel Mota