Alexandra Rodrigues Gonçalves will not be reappointed as regional director of Culture in the Algarve, she revealed, in an interview with Sul Informação, the Secretary of State for Culture Ângela Carvalho Ferreira.
The Government decided not to renew the mandate of Alexandra Gonçalves, which ends on 15 December, because, justified Ângela Carvalho Ferreira, it intends to «imprint a new orientation and dynamics on the Regional Directorate of Culture of the Algarve».
“It was our option to open a new competition and, therefore, the lady regional director will be replaced”, said the Secretary of State for Culture.
Contacted by Sul Informação, Alexandra Gonçalves said he does not want to comment on the Government's decision.
Thus, in about a month, the position of Regional Director of Culture will be left vacant. “The Service Commission ends in mid-December. Afterwards, a person will be appointed under the replacement regime and will be asked to open a new tender procedure», explained Ângela Ferreira, in statements to Sul Informação.
This competition will be promoted by the Recruitment and Selection Commission for Public Administration (CRESAP), which, at the end of the process, will select three of the candidates and suggest them to the tutelage, who, from among them, will choose the next person in charge of the Regional Directorate of Culture of the Algarve.
Alexandra Gonçalves held this position since December 2013 and was responsible for launching the DiVaM – Monuments Dynamization and Valorization program, which, over five years of programming, has taken music, dance, cinema and theater performances to the Algarve's monuments under the management of that Regional Directorate, as well as lectures, artistic interventions and science events. All of this has contributed to the increased number of visitors of the Algarve monuments.
Also under her aegis was created in 2015, the Maria Veleda Regional Award, which aims to reward the people of the Algarve – and the Algarve – who stand out in the area of culture, citizenship and gender equality. Since their creation, they have already been awarded Daisy Tengarrinha, José Louro e José Mendes Boot.
One of the focuses of the Regional Directorate of Culture has been Sagres, its fortress (which is the second most visited national monument in the country) and its historical significance. Thus, the inscription of the Promontory of Sagres as European Heritage Label, just as the application «Places of Globalization», a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Fortaleza's new website, a new film to be shown to visitors and a book about the Infante. The Regional Directorate also has new website.
The fortress was the target of a large campaign of restoration works, while the opening of a new store, while the booklet for the competition regarding the installation of the future multimedia center. In fact, all applications presented by the Regional Directorate to CRESC Algarve 2020 were approved and are in execution.
In addition to the works on the Sagres Fortress, which in part already came from the previous mandate, during the five years of Alexandra Gonçalves's direction, the conservation and restoration of the Albarrá tower of the Castle of Paderne, as well as the mosaics of the Roman Ruins of Milreu, and still interventions at the Cathedral of Silves or at the Megalithic Monuments of AlcalarInter other interventions in the archaeological and architectural heritage.
In this field, in 2016, the Regional Directorate of Culture signed an unprecedented protocol with the GNR, which provides that the SEPNA, a division of that authority that affects environmental crimes, will also become an active part of the mission to protect the region's cultural heritage.
Also, that same year, it was updated Atlas of Classified Heritage and in the process of being classified in the Algarve.
Within the scope of Intangible Cultural Heritage, processes of safeguarding and enhancement were initiated, while a portal to systematize all information on that topic.
To get people to debate heritage and culture, the initiative was launched Coffee with Letters, through which countless personalities from the Algarve and beyond have passed.
Several cultural and historical-patrimonial routes were also created or deepened, some of them cross-border or international partners.
In these years, the Regional Directorate of Culture also established a new editorial policy, namely creating an editing commission. The organization itself improved its operating conditions, by moving from its previous sparse facilities in the center of the city of Faro and also to new and larger facilities, in the former building of the extinct Regional Directorate of Economy.
Before being appointed regional director of Culture, the also professor at the University of Algarve had held the position of Councilor for Culture at the Chamber of Faro, in the mandate of the social democrat Macário Correia as president of the municipality.
The Secretary of State for Culture did not advance, in her interview with Sul Informação, who will be chosen to assume the position in the Regional Directorate while the definitive name is not named after the CRESAP competition.
In any case, if the decentralization process already started by the Government, which advocates the increase of competences on the part of the Regional Coordination and Development Committees, advances, any new person responsible for a Regional Directorate of Culture may only be in that position for the long term. This body should be integrated into the new generation of CCDR, perhaps at the level of a vice presidency.
Comments