Manicómio was born out of the experience of more than twenty years in psychiatric hospitals and in the world of art and culture where amazing artists and works were discovered, excluded from art marketing circuits in Portugal due to the stigma around their mental illness. This led the founders of the project to organise the first art exhibitions at the Julio de Matos psychiatric hospital – today  the Lisbon Psychiatric Hospital – where they created and inaugurated the contemporary art circuit of this Lisbon hospital. They mixed and matched already established contemporary Portuguese and foreign artists with artists from the hospital, maintaining the anonymity of the works and breaking the stigma that focuses not on the value of art, but on the disorder. 

In 2018 they launched Manicómio, located in a coworking space with other professionals, creative artists and businesses, because they know that the future lies in the melding, promotion, normalisation and the acceptance of insanity.

Manicómio has become an artistic and creative centre with:

• the first studio and gallery exhibiting raw and contemporary art in Portugal, with 14 resident artists, offering freedom and representation and artistic agency in sales, exhibitions and collaborations;
• the first creative design and communications agency in the world with creative artists suffering from mental illness;
• consulting and legal advice in art, mental health, human rights and employment.