In the third volume of the “Art and Community” notebooks series, journalist Vanessa Rodrigues compiles the reflections of the international conference “Building Capacities: rethinking the social value of culture”, hosted at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation on 6 June 2022, in partnership with the European project Traction.

Divided into seven chapters, the notebook summarises the ideas and practices discussed at the conference, reflects on experiences encountered, and emphasises “the social value of culture in building community capacities”, where discourse, action and civic participation shape policy to create a place of individual and collective transformation.

François Matarasso (coordinator of the Traction project), Valentí Oviedo (Gran Teatre del Liceu), James Bingham (Irish National Opera), Paulo Lameiro (Sociedade Artística Musical dos Pousos), Luís Sousa Ferreira (23 Milhas and Teatro Nacional D. Maria II), Maria Vlachou (Acesso Cultura), Ana Rita Barata and Pedro Sena Nunes (Vo’arte) are some of the conference participants cited in this publication. Building on the example of Traction and the creation of community operas in prison, the testimonials shared prove that technology can be a valuable resource in these processes and underscore the importance of culture and artistic-community co-creation in encouraging listening and promoting equality.

The notebook is available in digital format in Portuguese and English, and is free of charge.