Cultural rights: how to put them into practice?
Isto é PARTIS & Art for Change 2025
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Date
- / Cancelled / Sold out
Location
Auditorium 3 Calouste Gulbenkian FoundationIn 2009, a United Nations Special Rapporteur on cultural rights was appointed for the first time. The goal was to bring greater visibility to cultural rights within the context of human rights. Fifteen years later, how are we defending culture as an essential right?
In 2025, the Isto é PARTIS & Art for Change conference focuses on the practice of cultural rights and the intersections between art, participation, and identity.
Jazmín Beirak, Director General for Cultural Rights at Spain’s Ministry of Culture, will deliver the opening keynote, highlighting the action lines of this new office. This will be followed by a conversation with cultural and arts consultant Catarina Vaz Pinto.
The panel that sets out the conference’s title will explore the promotion of cultural rights through the experience of community-based projects Chamadarte, Braba.plataforma, and Unidigrazz, as well as insights from deaf artist and mediator Patrícia Carmo.
The second panel will delve into the role of art in recognizing and expressing cultural identities and legacies, featuring actresses and theater directors Coco Reyes (Gitanas a Escenas) and Maria Gil, musician and composer Edvânia Moreno, and intercultural mediator Rajendra Shiwakoti.
Additionally, the new digital platform Arte e Comunidade (Art and Community) will be unveiled, offering publications, methodology manuals, and other resources on participatory art and access to culture in Portugal.
Image © Carlos Porfírio
Speakers
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Alice Neto de Sousa
Alice Neto de Sousa is a Portuguese-born poet with roots in Angola. Author of the poem Março chosen to inaugurate the official commemorations of the 50th anniversary of the Carnation Revolution, she tries to ‘sharpen her tongue’ on stage for emerging social issues – especially her poem Poeta, which has been performed around the world. She was a regular on the television programme Bem-Vindos on RTP Africa and was Poet in Residence in 2024 at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.
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Catarina Vaz Pinto
Catarina Vaz Pinto has a degree in Law and a postgraduate qualification in European Studies.
Councillor for Culture at Lisbon City Council (2009-2021). Consultant for culture and the arts (2001-2005, 2021-). Non-executive director of the European Cultural Foundation (2021-) Executive Coordinator of the Gulbenkian Creativity and Artistic Creation Programme / Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (2003-2007), Executive Director of the Postgraduate Programme in ‘Cultural Management in Cities’ / INDEG / ISCTE (2001-2004). Secretary of State for Culture (1997-2000). Executive Director of Fórum Dança (1991-1995).
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Clemente Tsamba
Clemente Tsamba, born in Maputo, Mozambique, has been involved in artistic projects from a young age, training as a community theatre actor (PAND). Traditional tales from his childhood during the civil war inspired him to create plays such as Magia Negra (2007), Nos tempos de Gungunhana (2014) and Dizcontos (2020), which have been presented at Portuguese-speaking festivals. In addition to acting, he is a musician and visual artist, and currently runs Chamadarte, an association focused on inclusion through the arts (Beja). He has a degree in Multimedia Communication (ESEB), a post-graduate degree in Theatre and Community (ESTC), and is attending a post-graduate course in Artistic Practices for Inclusion (UC).
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Coco Reyes
Coco Reyes is the director and creator of Gitanas a Escena, the first theatre company made up exclusively of gypsy women, which was supported by the ‘la Caixa’ Foundation’s Art for Change 2022 programme.
A Romani actress, artist and writer born in Granada, she won the 8 de abril Award from the Cultura Gitana Institute in the New Creators category and has developed her career mainly in television, theatre and dance.
She has a degree in Fine Arts from the University of Granada and a postgraduate degree in Acting from the William Layton Theatre Laboratory in Madrid.
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Edvânia Monteiro
Violinist and composer Edvânia is originally from Cape Verde and grew up in Portugal, where she began her musical training with the Orquestra Geração project. She graduated from the Escola Profissional Metropolitana and studied jazz at the Escola Luís Villas-Boas, combining classical music, jazz and Cape Verdean traditions. She is a member of Active Mess, a group that reinterprets classical instruments by exploring different repertoires and styles. As a composer, one of her works was premiered by the Quarteto de Matosinhos in 2024.
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Gaya de Medeiros
Gaya is a dancer, actress and director. She has worked with various choreographers and directors in Portugal. In cinema, she starred in the short film Um Caroço de Abacate, by Ary Zara, which was shortlisted for the Oscars. She created the shows Atlas da Boca (2021), BAqUE (2022), Pai para Jantar (2023) and Cafezinho (2024), which have travelled to more than 15 countries and 26 cities. She founded BRABA, a platform that aims to support, enable and finance initiatives aimed at the trans and non-binary community.
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Jazmín Beirak
Director General of Cultural Rights for the Spanish Ministry of Culture.
Jazmín Beirak is a cultural manager, cultural policy researcher and cultural rights specialist. She was a member of parliament and spokesperson for culture in the Madrid Regional Parliament between 2015 and 2024, and in March 2024 was appointed Director General for Cultural Rights, the most recent secretary of the Spanish Ministry of Culture. With a degree in Art History and Theory, Jazmín has also worked at the Museo de la Biblioteca Nacional as a curator and mediator, and has taken part in various research projects such as Arte y Transición (Brumaria, 2012). She has taught on master’s programmes in the field of cultural rights and written on cultural policy in various general and specialised media. In 2022, she published her first book, Cultura Ingobernable (Ariel, 2022), examining culture and cultural policies.
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Joana Simões Piedade
Joana Simões Piedade is dedicated to education, cultural mediation, research, teacher training and social and artistic projects with a focus on human rights. She has a law degree (FDUL) and has worked as a journalist in Portugal and Angola. She has a Master’s degree in Migrations (FCSH/NOVA), a qualification in Participation and Education in Museums (University of the Arts London), and is a PhD candidate in Post-Colonialisms and Global Citizenship at CES/UC. She researches the politics of memory in education, pedagogical relations between schools and museums, young people and the historical memory of colonialism, dictatorship and revolution.
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Maria Gil
Born in Porto in 1972, Maria Gil is an actress, director and human rights activist. It was through forum and community theatre that she developed her activist practice, aimed especially at the inclusion of Romani people. She has appeared in films as a performer and co-guest in Leonor Teles’ film Cães que Ladram aos Pássaros [Dogs Barking at Birds], as well as in other short films that have won awards at various international film festivals. On television, she plays Carmen in the series ‘Braga’ directed by Joaquim Leitão/Pedro Ribeiro and produced by Tino Navarro. In 2021, she received the award at the Lefestt_Lisbon & Sintra Film Festival as a Portuguese Romani figure who contributes to and publicises ROM culture. In 2023, she co-directed the show Homo Sacer as part of TNDM’s Odisseia.
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Maria João Caetano
With a degree in Communication Sciences and a post-graduate degree in Theatre Studies, Maria João Caetano has over 25 years’ experience as a journalist, having spent most of her career at Diário de Notícias, writing especially in the areas of culture and society. She is currently a member of the CNN Portugal website team.
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Patrícia Carmo
Patrícia Carmo is an artist and interpreter of Portuguese Sign Language. She was formerly an assistant lecturer at the Portuguese Catholic University, where she carried out various research projects in the field of sign language linguistics. She is a chorister in the Mãos que Cantam choir and has been working with deaf children and young people and training listeners since 2004. She is notable for her involvement in the ‘Sem Barreiras’ project, which took place in São Tomé and Príncipe and led to the creation of the São Tomé and Príncipe Sign Language Dictionary, of which she is the main author. She took part in the Alegoria da Caverna project, as part of PARTIS & Art for Change, and collaborated with Terra Amarela as an interpreter in the monologue O Tamanho das Coisas.
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Rajendra Shiwakoti
Rajendra Shiwakoti, from Nepal, has been an intercultural mediator at TAIPA – Organização Cooperativa para o Desenvolvimento Integrado, in Odemira, since July 2021, supporting the integration of the migrant community. From 2013 to 2019, he coordinated projects for children and people in need at an NGO in Nepal. With a degree in Theology (2006-2009), he has training in intercultural mediation and inclusive health. Passionate about music, he plays the bamboo flute, djembê and madal, believing that music unites cultures and overcomes barriers. Rajendra was part of the BOWING project (PARTIS & Art for Change 2021-2023), playing a key role as a translator, mediator and musician.
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Tristany
Tristany Mundu, born on the Sintra Line in 1995, is a transdisciplinary artist who brings together music, performance, visual arts and curating to explore local identity and the diaspora. With Angolan and Portuguese roots, he released Meia Riba Kalxa in 2020 and has produced mini-series inspired by the album. He has created exhibitions and installations for MAAT and the Iminente Festival, held concerts and performances in Portugal and Europe, and is currently developing his next visual and sound work, Cidade à volta da Cidade. He is co-founder of Unidigrazz, an association that promotes access to and democratisation of art and culture, with its focus and headquarters in Algueirão-Mem Martins on the Sintra Line.
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Inês Henriques
Project Manager for Participatory Art and Access to Culture at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation since 2024. Inês Henriques has a degree in Communication Sciences and a master’s degree in Historical Musicology. For 7 years, she worked at CTL – Cultural Trend Lisbon, the cultural company that manages Musicbox, Povo, Casa Capitão and MIL, where she was responsible for communication, project management and cultural programming.
Programme
10:00 / Welcome
10:30 / Directorate General of Cultural Rights
11:45 / Cultural rights: how to put them into practice?
14:45 / Art, participation and cultural identity
16:30 / Digital Platform ‘Art and Community’
16:50 / Closing comments
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