Portugal’s Serralves Foundation Celebrates 25 Years with a Gala and Theaster Gates Performance

Museum director Suzanne Cotter and deputy director and senior curator João Riba welcomed some 600 guests (including Portuguese artists Julião Sarmento and Rui Chafes), who sipped on sparking rosé and nibbled on cod fritters and foie gras before listening to a speech given by Portuguese prime minister Pedro Passos Coelho. Afterwards, they headed into a grand tent to dine on oysters escabeche, a seafood soup, and chicken breast with Douro wines and mini vegetables.

After dinner, a dance floor that lay beneath not one, but ten disco balls awaited and the crowd boogied down to a cover band that sang everything from Lionel Richie to David Guetta. Although the Serralves Foundation may not be a familiar name to those outside its native Portugal, there’s reason why even the head of state attended—it’s the country’s most-visited museum.