Reference: LAM-GM Funding  institution: Instituto Politécnico de Bragança Start date: 2018 End date:

 

Main Research Area: Arts

Secondary Research Area: Education

Keywords: Graça Morais; Contemporary Art; Artistic Education; Art and Community.

 

Description:

The Portuguese painter Graça Morais (b.1948) is the author of an extensive work which reflects both her origins – a small rural village in Northeast Portugal – and her experience in a cosmopolitan and constantly changing world. Her paintings not only evoke memories, but also describe contemporary events, thus intersecting the local and the global, the past and the present, in a dynamic approach that involves and questions the observer – and, through him, all humankind.

Inspired by the tutelary figure of Graça Morais and her fruitful and uninterrupted activity over the last forty years, the Instituto Politécnico de Bragança [Polytechnic Institute of Bragança] (IPB) has recently created the Laboratório de Artes na Montanha – Graça Morais (LAM-GM), a research structure that aims at promoting and disseminating scientific and artistic research and creation, and also comprehending formative activities, and academic training.

The LAM-GM is based in the School of Education and integrated in the Mountain Research Centre (CIMO), at IPB. Its creation is the result of a collaboration protocol between the Câmara Municipal de Bragança [Municipality of Bragança] / Centro de Arte Contemporânea Graça Morais [Contemporary Art Centre Graça Morais], and Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa (NOVA FCSH). LAM-GM also benefits from the support of the Foundation for Science and Technology.

The LAM-GM activities are based on four main guidelines:

1. Research, inventory and creation of a Documentation Centre on the work of the painter Graça Morais. The main objective of this new documentation centre is to promote the systematic inventory of Graça Morais works and archive, in order to make them available to students and researchers who wish to study her artistic production. Furthermore, the centre intends to gather documentation on artists and works related to the geographical context of the mountain.

2. Development of innovative curricular programmes at the IPB, with the immersion of students in research practices in artistic context. The LAM-GM will contribute to the improvement of the art courses offered by the IPB, developing innovative methodologies of training and research based on artistic practice, and promoting activities that articulate art and science.

3. Dissemination and promotion of artistic creation. With this purpose in view, several activities will take place: organization of masterclasses, thematic seminars, artistic residences and workshops; the promotion of performing activities of artistic creation and training for specialized and non-specialized audiences; dissemination through editions and other didactic instruments; the creation of the Graça Morais Prize, which will award scholarships to young people with recognisable artistic talent.

4. Creation of a cross-border mountain artistic research network. The new research structure will develop its action from the territorial context of Northeast Portugal and intends to constitute an interregional and cross-border network involving neighbouring institutions and art centres. It will connect the city of Bragança and its rural surroundings, with other Northeast councils, and also the Spanish border provinces (Autonomous Community of Castilla-León, province of Zamora).

This new project aims at converting Bragança and its surroundings in a decentralized hub of cultural events.

With regard to the Instituto de História da Arte / NOVA FCSH partnership, the participation in this project is coordinated by Raquel Henriques da Silva, who will provide scientific mentoring and engage senior and junior researchers in the promotion of academic initiatives.

 

INSTITUTIONS

Instituto Politécnico de Bragança [Polytechnic Institute of Bragança] (IPB)

Câmara Municipal de Bragança [Municipality of Bragança] (CMB)

Centro de Arte Contemporânea Graça Morais [Contemporary Art Centre Graça Morais] (CACGM, CMB), Bragança

Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa (NOVA FCSH)

Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT)

 

Main Contractor: Instituto Politécnico de Bragança (IPB)

Main Research Unit: Mountain Research Centre (CIMO), IPB

Additional Research Units: Instituto de História da Arte / NOVA FCSH

 

TEAM

António Meireles (Escola Superior de Educação; LAM-GM, IPB)

Joana Baião (LAM-GM, IPB; IHA, FCSH/NOVA)

Jorge da Costa (CACGM, CMB)