Casa do Design becomes part of RPAC

Officially joined the Portuguese Contemporary Art Network

The Casa do Design, a cultural facility of the Matosinhos municipality, located in Paços do Concelho, has officially joined the Portuguese Network of Contemporary Art (RPAC), as part of the application that the Municipality of Matosinhos submitted to the first phase of this project, created by Council of Ministers Resolution, in 2021.

The RPAC is a platform of reference in the promotion and enhancement of Portuguese contemporary art, transversal to the entire national territory, voluntary membership and which aims to bring together the universe of different types of contemporary art entities, territorially dispersed, with activity predominantly in the areas of visual arts and disciplinary intersection, mapping and establishing synergies between exhibition spaces, collectors, programmers, curators and artists.

Regarding Casa do Design, the positive opinion distinguishes this cultural equipment, whose mission is to promote activities to enhance and stimulate contemporary art, ensuring regular public access, public mediation activities and its own cultural programming.

The entity ensures that its main activity is not of a lucrative nature, that it has an operating budget, the technical conditions necessary for the production of exhibitions and safeguarding of heritage, as well as holding a space appropriate to its respective typology, size, technical capacity and programmatic strategy, meeting the criteria of safety, reception and accessibility required.

Fulfilling the Matosinhos City Hall's bet to assume Design as a strategic means for the development of the city, with the purpose of requalifying the city itself, its public spaces and its relationship with its inhabitants, but also as a means to reposition Matosinhos' image at a national and international level, the Casa do Design opened its doors on June 30th 2016 as a central space for the exhibition, dissemination and critical production of design knowledge with a particular focus on Portuguese design.

The Casa do Design has been reinforcing its programmatic matrix, focused on exhibitions that encourage reflection and debate on contemporary design culture or, from another perspective, that investigate, collect and preserve historical knowledge related to the evolution of design in its various areas, documenting different triangulations between design, industry and society.

The project results from a partnership between the Matosinhos City Hall and esad-idea, Investigação em Design e Arte (the research center of ESAD - School of Arts and Design) and intends to consolidate itself through an openness to different areas, themes and audiences, as well as by being receptive to new proposals and future partners, in order to reinforce the dimension of a space that wants to have national and international coverage and relevance.

The Casa do Design has a programmatic strategy that privileges historical and contemporary research on Portuguese design, oriented towards exhibitions that explore triangulations between design, society, and industry, with a concern for the formation of new audiences, consolidation of the educational service, and a bet on publishing, based on three main strategic axes: Programming and Publishing; Parallel Activities and Educational Service; Creation of digital content and communication.

Membership in RPAC consolidates all the work developed so far, and reinforces the reference positioning that Casa do Design has been developing since its creation.