Paula Varanda

After graduating at Escola Superior de Dança (Lisbon, 1994) I collaborated as executive producer with various independent organizations until 2005: Danças na Cidade/Alkantara (Lisbon) promoted an international festival and performing arts publications; Re.Al-João Fiadeiro (Lisbon) was touring as a dance company and promoting work-in-progress showcases; Body-Data-Space (London and Berlin) led multidisciplinary collaboration and digital technology research; and international network Danse Bassin Mediterranée offered workshops, meetings and showcases.

When I post-graduated with a Master of Arts in Middlesex University (2003) I started writing about the arts and collaborated with Público newspaper as a critic (2004-2016), Daniel Tércio (2009), Alkantara (2010) and Belém Cultural Centre (2016) among others; my book Dançar é Crescer – Aldara Bizarro e o Projecto Respira (Caleidoscópio 2012), is about a 3-year project with schools and theatres. After the MA, I initiated my experience in public administration as advisor in the Arts Institute for the Portuguese Ministry of Culture (2004-07).

In 2008 I returned to Middlesex and completed my PhD with a thesis on dance and new media (2016); from 2008 to 2015, I have also directed Dansul, a community dance project with a company, workshops and a national festival, setting up a regional-scale informal network with the municipalities and schools in the southeast of Portugal.

From 2016 to 2018 I was appointed Director-General for the Arts, in the Ministry of Culture, to coordinate the public funding for the arts, organizie the Venice Biennale and renovate the institution’s strategy. I developed particular interest in arts and education to enhance community particpation, the body in interactive new media, and the cultural policies for access and sustainability to the arts. In 2019 I am associate researcher of the Institute of Art History and member of the advisory board for the Portuguese Observatory of Cultural Activities.