The team
Casa da Imagem - Fundação Manuel Leão
Casa da Imagem (House of Image) (CI-FML) is an artistic and educational centre, where media and visual literacy can be learned and explored by the community. CI-FML is part of a Foundation, Fundação Manuel Leão, a private, non-profit entity with public interest status, and is, therefore, committed in pursuing its goals and mandate. The Foundation organises its activities and initiatives in Vila Nova de Gaia since 1996 and its main purpose is the promotion of public good through the educational, cultural, artistic and socio-charitable domains. It was from the intersection of the two central pillars of the Fundação Manuel Leão, education and art, that Casa da Imagem emerged in 2011, offering a space of education and artistic activities, initiatives and endeavours.
The main goal of CI-FML is to build a space for learning and sharing experiences through images. The concept of image presents itself as the ground in which our way of doing things can meet our need to affirm ourselves as persons, our relationship with others and with the world around us. CI-FML aims to create access to art and culture for the population that lives apart from the main city centres and has the goal to develop projects that address social matters that are and can be manifested through images (media and visual literacy).
CI-FML promotes activities based on sharing and practices that favour constant experimentation and the discovery of means, technologies and reflections that come to life through objects/actions. Learning takes place when we adopt an attitude of discovery, of exploration and deconstruction, of cooperation, of creating and sharing individual perceptions.
Joana Mateus
Artist Educator. Educational background in Arts (Fine Arts graduation– Painting & Master in Art Multimedia) and Education (Master in Teaching of Visual Arts). Teacher of Visual Arts and of Photography (2003-2010) in several schools and in all years of the pre-university education, from the First Elementary School to the Secondary and Professional Education. Worked as assistant with several Portuguese artists in Portugal. Researcher at CEAA-ESAP. Individual and collaborative work in the art field of video and performance. Since 2011, started to develop the Casa da Imagem [House of Image] project, and more recently, its Museum.
Inês Azevedo
Artist Educator. Educational background in Arts (Fine Arts graduation– Sculpture & Master in Contemporary Artistic Practices) and Education (Master in Teaching of Visual Arts). Has been working and researching as an art educator since the year 2000, both in non-formal contexts, with local communities or museums, and in formal contexts, in close relation with schools, their teachers, students, staff and families, through arts based projects. Since 2011, started to develop the Casa da Imagem [House of Image] project, and more recently, its Museum. Researcher at CEAA-ESAP. Her main field of research is focused on the mediation process of people/communities relating to arts, education and museology.
Margarida Azevedo
Educational background in Economics, a PhD in Economic Sciences (Université Paris1-Panthéon Sorbonne), with the title ‘The evaluation of the social impacts of culture: Culture, Arts and Development’, a Master’s in Arts Management (City University London), and a specialisation in Creativity and Urban Political Strategies (Barcelona University). She has been working as a cultural manager consultant, consultant on the third sector, an urban regeneration developer (culture led regeneration) and guest lecturer. Her main field of research is focused on exploring and measuring the social outcomes produced by cultural experiences.
Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação - UP
U.PORTO, founded in 1911, is today one of the largest higher education and research institutions in Portugal with around 32500 students, 2300 academics and researchers and 1500 administrative staff. Internationalisation is one of U.PORTO´s strategic pillars and objectives, allowing the development of existing collaborations, as well as the establishment of innovative cooperation activities through the creation of active links with institutions from all over the world (2200 active agreements). The Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação da Universidade do Porto (FPCEUP) was created in 1980 and it is the school where research and higher education in Psychology and Educational Sciences is carried out. About 1500 students attend FPCEUP undergraduate, master and doctoral programmes and over 1000 persons come every year to attend continuing education and professional training activities in the psychological and educational fields. With more than 30 years of activity, FPCEUP is committed to top level education and scientific research and to the promotion of an institutional culture addressed to well-being and social progress. The Center for Psychology at the University of Porto (CPUP) is one of two R&D units of FPCEUP. CPUP aims at contributing to a better, inclusive, and open society by producing high-quality psychological research and evidence-based educational, social and clinical applications. This unit has a vibrant and supportive scientific environment gathering 67 researchers from complementary areas of Psychology. An integrative approach is adopted to promote synergies among researchers in different areas of expertise. CPUP is a recognized research center funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology.
Catarina Grande
Ph.D. in Psychology is an Assistant Professor of psychology in pre and post-graduate studies at FPCEUP and an integrated member of the CPUP. Her area of scientific activity is Educational and Developmental Psychology, Early Childhood Intervention and recently Pediatric Psychology. Her main research interest is preschool children with typical and atypical development and she has participated in different research projects in early childhood education and early childhood intervention. In terms of materials development, she turned research findings into practice in the creation of the Intervene More, Intervene Better practice guide for teachers of children with special needs. In terms of outreach, she has presented dozens of training and workshops for teachers and directors on quality improvement assessments and coaching, and also many workshops for parents of children with disabilities.
Joana Cadima
Ph.D. in Psychology is an Assistant Professorat FPCEUP and researcher at CPUP. Her research interests include teacher-child interactions and social relationships as contexts for child development in early childhood, social inequalities and sociocultural risk. She has participated in several research projects on early childhood education, focusing on preschool and primary school quality (e.g., CARE FP7 research project, http://ecec-care.org; QualityMatters https://www.fpce.up.pt/qualitymatters/ funded by FCT). She has conducted research involving children and youth from socially disadvantaged communities on tackling social inequalities European H2020 research project (ISOTIS research project http://www.isotis.org). She is also involved in two Erasmus+ projects on artistic workshops in multilingual classrooms (Articulan 2018-1-PT01-KA201-047392) and on citizenship (Bridging 2018-1-BE02-KA201-046844).
Diana Alves
Is an assistant professor at the FPCEUP. She is also a clinical psychologist at the Service of Psychological Intervention for Children and Adolescents at FPCEUP, where she coordinates the Specialized Unit of Learning Difficulties. She has been a consultant in several interventions in educational contexts aiming to promote the socio-emotional competences of children. She conducts research in the field of developmental psychology, as well as academic, social and emotional competence in children, having published both papers and book chapters. She is a board certified psychologist in Clinical and Educational Psychology by the OPP.
APPACDM
Jönköping University
The School of Education and Communication (HLK) is one of four schools at the Jönköping University in Sweden. Research and teaching activitites at HLK are focused on sustainability, digitalisation and inclusion. Several research groups address issues of diversity and participation, and HLK has a long tradition of highly regarded disability research.
HLK offers a unique study environment with a close dialogue with professors and lecturers and offer educational programmes within areas such as communication, education, human resources and global studies. Studie programmes include media and communication science, special education, and not least in pedagogy and didactics when teaching arts.
Jönköping University (JU) is a non-governmental non-profit Swedish university. In total, JU has around 11,000 students, of which almost 2,000 are international students. The university is one of the top universities in international student exchange and among the best in Sweden in terms of attracting international students.
Helena Taubner
Is an assistant professor in special education, with a background in linguistics. Her recent research is about people with intellectual disability and participation in everyday life settings, such as work or group homes. Her PhD thesis, in the field Health and Lifestyle with a specialisation in Disability Studies, is about identity construction in social media when living with aphasia.
Radu Harald Dinu
Is an associate professor in history. His research focuses on disability history and the modern and contemporary history of Eastern Europe. He has led the research project EduComics, which aimed at examining how comics and graphic novels enhance learning and foster social change across and beyond educational contexts, including history education.
Isabel Wiberg
Is a lecturer in art. Besides educating arts teachers, she is herself a trained artist and atelierista.
Klas Öhling
Is a lecturer in art. He has an extensive experience of teaching visual arts and social media to future arts teachers.
Habo kommun
A nearby municipality, is a JU partner in the Friends of Pandora project. Several carers and persons with intellectual disabilities are involved in the development of activities and materials.
EMST
EMST is the leading national institution for contemporary art and visual culture in Greece. It began operating in 2000, spending its first years in a nomadic phase presenting exhibitions and events at the Athens Concert Hall, the Athens School of Fine Arts, the Athens Conservatoire, and in public spaces. In 2015, it moved into its permanent premises: the former FIX brewery, a landmark industrial building of 20,000 sq. meters. The building was renovated to house the museum and now boasts state-of-the-art facilities, eight exhibition spaces, two auditoriums, a library, an archive, a café, a restaurant, and 360-degree views of Athens. Among EMST’s primary aims are the creation of collections of contemporary Greek and international art, the promotion and presentation of advanced and experimental artistic tendencies, the enhancement of public art appreciation, and the development of scientific research on contemporary art history, theory, and museology. The museum regards art and visual culture as transformative elements in education, knowledge production, and storytelling, as well as tools for advocating progressive and emancipatory societal values.
Marina Tsekou
Is an Education Curator. She has extensive experience in designing and implementing educational programs and art projects specially tailored for school and a great variety of other groups, in the museum and outside its walls. In 2009 she developed the EMST Without Borders, an innovative, inclusive and participatory program for vulnerable groups, such as inmates, people with drug abuse problems, migrants, refugees, etc. Since then she is responsible for its implementation and the required collaborations with various educational, cultural and social institutions, NGOs etc. EMST Without Borders was awarded the ICOM – CECA Best Practice prize in 2012. Her last innovative project is Face Forward… into my home, an interactive art project engaging refugees and focusing on their stories. She is also a tutor for the Audience Development course at the Transforming Future Museum program, organized by the British Council.
Elisabeth Ioannides (Ph.D, ECP.h)
Is an Education Curator and Art Psychotherapist at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (EMST). Her work lies at the intersection of museums, contemporary art, mental health, and well-being, with a particular focus on museum-based art psychotherapy, museum learning, and inclusive cultural practice. As Education Curator, she delivers educational programs to primary school children and vulnerable groups both within the Museum premises and outside, and holds tours to the Museum’s exhibitions. She also designs the educational leaflets that accompany the exhibitions. Since 2017, she has pioneered the development of museum-based group art psychotherapy at ΕΜΣΤ through the ongoing programme Exploring the Museum’s Images – Exploring My Image. She also co-facilitated art psychotherapy groups within Greece’s national pilot implementation of Art on Prescription, contributing to the integration of cultural prescribing into mental health care. Alongside her clinical and museum practice, she teaches, mentors, and supervises art psychotherapists working in cultural settings. She serves on the Board of the Greek Association of Art Psychotherapists, is a member of EFAT’s Research Committee, and a founding member of EFAT’s Special Interest Group on Art Psychotherapy in Museums. She also serves as a peer reviewer for international academic journals and on the Scientific Committee of Empirical Museum Studies journal. Her publications are available on Academia.edu and ResearchGate.
Ioakeim Theodoridis
Is an art historian and cultural manager working in the Education Department of the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (EMST) since 2019, where he plans and implements educational and cultural activities for diverse age groups, ranging from teenagers to adults aged 65 and above. “Companionship with contemporary art” is one of the programmes he has developed and implements since 2022, visiting elderly people and people with disabilities who cannot easily attend the museum, so they can enjoy arts-based activities at home. He is also a writer and researcher, focusing on archival research and the history of modern and contemporary art. His professional experience spans the cultural, editorial, private, and public sectors.
Dimitris Kannas
Is an artist working as an animateur in the Education Department of the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (EMST). He carries out the educational programmes for primary schools and special groups (autistic groups, former drug users, migrants, refugees, inmates and others) within and outside the Museum. He has organised and implemented stop motion animation videos for the Educational Programmes of EMST. He designs educational leaflets and videos for the Department.