Culturgest

Two galleries and two auditoriums inside a 1990s bank headquarters

A Portuguese state bank put a cultural foundation inside its own headquarters in 1993, with two exhibition galleries, a large and a small auditorium, and a brief to programme contemporary art, dance and music without commercial pressure.

Thirty years on it remains the most consistently interesting contemporary programme in Lisbon, largely unvisited by tourists because it sits in an office district north of the centre and looks like what it is.