Fundaçao Centro Cultural de Belém is the foundation dedicated to manage the namesake cultural center. The foundation’s special aim is to guarantee the conservation, administration and development of the patrimony of the Centro Cultural de Belém (CCB).
Their goal is to promote culture, developing and disseminating new creations in all of their different forms, from classical music to jazz, from theatre to dance, from opera to literature, architecture and cinema.
It was decided to build CCB in 1988. The complex comprises a centre for temporary exhibitions which since 2006 has housed the Berardo Museum, a module with multipurpose rooms, an auditorium for symphonic music and opera performances and another geared to the performing arts, as well as a conference centre that hosted Portugals Presidency of the European Union in 1992.
The building was designed by the architects Vittorio Gregotti (Italy) and Manuel Salgado (Portugal). Today it has a strong cultural programme and plays an important part as a Conference Centre. It has been classified since 2002 as a monument of public interest.
In 2023, the Exhibition Centre of CCB opened its doors as MAC/CCB – Museum of Contemporary Art. The museum houses the Berardo Collection, the Holma/Ellipse Collection and the Teixeira de Freitas Collection, as well as parts of the State Contemporary Art Collection. In the Portuguese context, this makes it the most important international collection of works produced since modernism.