Museums and Palaces

Installed since October 2015, this museum unit is the result of the transfer of the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Funchal. With a collection of about 400 pieces, dedicated to Portuguese contemporary art, from the 1960s to the present day, the first nucleus came from the acquisitions of the City of Funchal Fine Arts Awards, an initiative of the years 1966 and 1967.

The initial group of works includes pieces by Joaquim Rodrigo, António Areal, Artur Rosa, José Escada, Helena Almeida, Jorge Martins, Nuno Siqueira, Manuel Baptista, among others. These works by renowned Portuguese plastic artists, many from Madeira, are accompanied by others bought from art galleries or from the authors themselves, as well as donations from exhibitions in the former Gallery of the Regional Secretariat of Tourism and Culture and from private individuals, such as Ana Hatherly, Pedro Valdez Cardoso, Albuquerque Mendes, Sofia Areal, etc.

Between the opening of the old museum in 1992 and 2015, the space for the size of the current collection had been exhausted. The current building, winner of international awards, was designed by the Madeiran architect Paulo David. It was designed with a sober aesthetic in mind and the possibility to provide from the inside views over the sea and the surrounding slopes. 

It also includes an auditorium, a library, a shop, a cafeteria, a restaurant, an area for cultural entertainment and a car park.