Atrium

THE CULTURAL INSTITUTE OF MACAU: AN INSTITUTION WITH A PLACE IN TOMORROW'S MACAO

Jorge António Hagerdon Rangel

There are certain institutions that, irrespective of their physical, human, or financial size, play a determining role in the communities in which they are found. This was the role we had in mind for the Instituto Cultural de Macau (Cultural Institute of Macau) [ICM] when it was conceived and later launched at the beginning of the 1980s at a time when there existed no body specifically responsible for promoting culture in Macao.

At the time, the various Municipal Councils had yet to develop a cultural policy of their own, the Fundação Macau (Macao Foundation) [FM], Fundação Oriente (Orient Foundation) [FO] and the Instituto Português do Oriente (Portuguese Institute of the Orient) [IPOR] had yet to be established and the various private associations were far from exerting the strong influence and role they would later come to enjoy. The only entity that did exist was the small Divisão de Cultura (Cultural Division) deep within the Direcção dos Serviços de Educação e Cultura (Department of Education and Culture) and headed by the current President of the Cultural Institute of Macau.

Upon receiving the responsibility for overseeing the development of culture, alongside education and tourism, in May, 1981, our first action was to establish the Comissão Coordenadora da Acção Cultural (Coordinating Commission for Culture) which represented in embryonic form the future Cultural Institute of Macau, officially founded in September, 1982. As anticipated, this body soon began to play a distinctive role contributing, through good and bad times, some excellent initiatives and some notorious disasters, a positive presence within local society.

As the Cultural Institute of Macau commemorates its Fifteenth Anniversary, it gives us great pleasure to be able to look on in the knowledge that we have contributed to its beginnings and its success. Looking back with some nostalgia on the difficult early years when means were scarce but enthusiasm and the desire to succeed high, we wish the Cultural Institute of Macau a long life, in the certainty that it will be so as long as it continues to be identified with Macao and the extremely significant historical and cultural legacy that will befall it to defend and promote for future generations.

Macao, June 1997.

Jorge António Hagerdon Rangel

Under-Secretary for Administration, Education and Youth

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