One year after its opening, the Funchal Cultural and Research Center (CCIF) marked its first anniversary today with a concert by the 600-voice ‘Funchal Choir’, which was attended by the mayor of Funchal, Cristina Pedra, among other personalities.
On the sidelines of the commemorative ceremony, the mayor presented the figures that “reflect a ‘positive’ balance of the first year of activity carried out in the former facilities of the Funchal Slaughterhouse, a space that has created a new centrality for culture, research, and technology,” says a note from the municipality.
With a permanent program of shows, exhibitions, congresses and social activities, around 14,000 people visited the CCIF during this period. “There were 64 congresses, 5 book launches, 34 shows and 12 exhibitions,” adds the president of the CMF. “The figures leave the whole team ‘satisfied’. Cristina Pedra speaks of ‘a record number’, stressing that ‘the CIIF has been a space for training, promoting, developing and conceiving’, highlighting, among other initiatives, the Funchal Choir, which involves all ten parishes in Funchal, bringing together a choir of 600 voices, created on the occasion of the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of April 25th”, she recalled.


On the other hand, the mayor mentioned the eGames Lab project, which “is being promoted in that space and which aims to create a cluster specializing in the production and development of video games, stimulating and boosting the entire creative industries sector. The mayor emphasized that the CCIF has been the stage for major international conferences within the scope of the project. “

The mayor also highlighted “the 27 researchers who have been hired and are currently studying for their bachelor’s, master’s or doctorate degrees, and even post-doctorates from various countries, underlining that the project has already served to produce several research papers,” she recalled.
Cristina Pedra added that “these researchers have their own income, through grants approved by the consortium project itself, which brings together various entities, and they are researchers working in a wide variety of areas, computer science, design, art, multimedia, sociology, among others, which are essential for the construction of the games and new scientific advances in their areas. They have done a great deal of value-added work,” she concluded.

Francisco José Cardoso, is a journalist for Diário de Notícias-Madeira.

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