a conductor, a factory and the memory of são jorge
The walls are those of the old Fábrica de Conservas Marie d'Anjou. The building held fish for decades; now it holds something else: the musical, industrial and ethnographic memory of an island many people fly over on their way somewhere else.
The Museu Francisco de Lacerda takes its name from a conductor and composer from São Jorge who built his career mainly in Paris and became the island's most referenced cultural figure. Inside the museum you find exactly that: the world of Lacerda, the classical and popular music of the Açores, the world of the philharmonic bands that are still a social force in São Jorge today. These are layers that overlap without cancelling each other out.
The industrial component isn't decorative. The canning factory is the place itself, and you feel that in the structure of the space. This isn't a museum that happens to be in a historic building by accident; it's a museum that grows out of what the building was, with the canning industry as its own subject alongside the music.
In Calheta, this is the point where the island stops and tells you something about itself. You leave with an idea of São Jorge that doesn't come from the hiking trails.
what you'll find
- the converted ruins of the Fábrica Marie d'Anjou as the structure of the space
- collection on Francisco de Lacerda, a composer with a European career born on this island
- section dedicated to Azorean philharmonic bands
- temporary exhibitions and auditorium for events
- documentation centre and indoor and outdoor leisure areas
