From now on, we have a year. A year of work to build a vast, diversified, and quality program to make the Portuguese Capital of Culture 2026 a reality in Ponta Delgada. The personal pronoun in the first person plural was used on purpose: cultural agents, artists, public institutions, patrons, and civil society must be connected to elevate the regional cultural sector to another place. But what is this place? It’s a place that starts from the community and becomes international by being local. To be local, let’s begin by stripping away all the prejudices we impose on the status of “local artist” and knowing how to respect and value their work.

I’m looking forward not to 2026 and enjoying it but to the path that will be traveled throughout this coming year and to being able to help build it. This is a time of great opportunity, and I believe that Commissioner Kátia Guerreiro will be able to give substance to this path of making the various cultural quadrants communicate with each other in the different artistic disciplines, bringing together consensus and strategies that can become the basis for solidifying a sector that is permanently in deficit.

Mapping: First, we need to document what we know. Know who does what, identify public and private infrastructures, and list the community’s cultural practices, traditions, and artistic expressions. This information ensures that the community is represented in the programming exercise.

Dialogue: Secondly, you need to know how to value. Mapping is essential for bringing together those who create, promote, and disseminate. Establish partnerships and a network that encourages itinerancy and bridges between different places.

Enjoying: Finally, we need to value and appreciate. The cultural offer and its consequent democratization happen when each individual recognizes themselves as a product recipient. Build audiences, and don’t devalue the role of mediation.

Let’s train and give tools to those who – rightly – lead this whole process, building a solid, transversal, representative team that is paid for the valuable work it will give back to the archipelago. My optimism leads me to see this common project for a more distant future than 2026. Integrated, structured, and with the awareness that the epicenter of the Portuguese Capital of Culture is in Ponta Delgada but that cultural replicas are needed on the other islands. From Aveiro to Braga and from Braga to Ponta Delgada. Can we at least be on the cultural radar of the whole country? Could we move at the right speed?

Published in Portuguese in the Açoriano Oriental newspaper

Translated to English by Diniz Borges

PBBI thanks the Luso-American Education Foundation for sponsoring FILAMENTOS.