As Possibilidades Mediadoras da Arte: Um Estudo de Caso Sobre Experiência Artística e Participação Teatral de Pessoas com Deficiência Visual

Fernando Fontes; Cláudia  Carvalho; Susete Margarido

doi:10.21814/rlec.4465

Authors

Fernando Fontes Centro de Estudos Sociais, Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2485-2331
Cláudia Carvalho Centro de Estudos Sociais, Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8633-7226
Susete Margarido Faculdade de Economia, Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2485-2331

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21814/rlec.4465

Keywords:

cultural mediation, artistic practice, disability, cultural participation

Abstract

This article draws on the experience of implementing a project of inclusion through art — A Meu Ver (In My View) — by a professional artistic structure in theatre in the city of Coimbra: O Teatrão. It is a three-year theatre training and practice project for people with blindness or have low vision, funded by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and La Caixa Foundation under the Partis & Art for Change programme. The project combines training and intervention in the cultural space of Coimbra. The aim was to analyse and rethink the possible roles of artistic education in cultural mediation, as an intervention model, between the entity O Teatrão and a group of disabled people, traditionally out of the artistic circuits. This research privileged a qualitative approach, conducting a case study of exploratory nature, which took place between October 2021 and August 2022. The data reported here were collected through four data collection techniques: participant observation, questionnaire survey, semi-structured interviews and focus group. By demonstrating the importance of the artistic creation experience in recomposing disabled people's identities, the project stimulates the deconstruction of disability conceptions based on the individual model and promotes a social concept of disability. In bringing together visually impaired people and Teatrão professionals, A Meu Ver demonstrates that the problems of disabled people do not derive from their impairments but from the dominant forms of social organisation and culture. This deconstruction made it possible to analyse the individual impacts of the project for its direct participants and to highlight possible cultural mediation formats for developing projects with this approach in the cultural sector.

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Author Biographies

Fernando Fontes, Centro de Estudos Sociais, Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

Fernando Fontes is a sociologist with a PhD in Sociology and Social Policy, specialising in disability studies, from the University of Leeds, UK (2011) and an MA in Sociology and Social Policy from the University of Coimbra, Portugal (2006). He is an assistant researcher at the Centro de Estudos Sociais of the University of Coimbra. He is the author and co-author of several publications in the areas of sociology, social policy and interdisciplinary studies on the topics of disability policies, violence and disability, inclusion and citizenship rights of persons with disabilities in Portugal, social movements, sexuality and intimate relationships, citizenship of persons with disabilities in Portugal.

Cláudia Carvalho, Centro de Estudos Sociais, Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

Cláudia Monteiro Pato de Carvalho is a researcher at the Centro de Estudos Sociais (CES) and develops work in community participation, cultural mapping, community co-creation and urban intervention. She coordinates the research-action project academically in the cultural area of REDE ARTÉRIA (Portugal 2020, www.redearteria.pt). Between 2010 and 2018, she developed, in the context of Teatrão's educational service, a European network in the field of art education in contexts of social exclusion (Youth in Action Programme, ERASMUS+). She was a member of the CES research team of the CREATOUR project (www.creatour.pt) and is a current member of the CREATOUR Observatory (https://ces.uc.pt/observatorios/creatour/). She is part of the CES team of the project H2020 UNCHARTED: Understanding, Capturing and Fostering the Societal Value of Culture (2020-2024). She is part of the CES coordination team for IN SITU: Place-based innovation of cultural and creative industries in non-urban areas. She co-coordinates the CES working group on citizen science and education. She is a visiting assistant professor at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra, where she teaches applied sociology (Sociology degree) and critical intercultural dialogue (master's degree in Sociology).

Susete Margarido, Faculdade de Economia, Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

Susete Margarido has a degree in Social Work from the Instituto Superior Miguel Torga since 2017. She has worked as a social worker in health and disability at the Sociedade Portuguesa de Esclerose Múltipla (Portuguese Society of Multiple Sclerosis) since 2018. She is a working student, attending the 2nd year of a master's degree in Sociology at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra. She was one of the recipients of the merit award - FEUC Exemplar — second cycle — in the first year of the master in Sociology in 2020/2021.

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