Évora NAU

Évora NAU - New Arts Uprising is a presentation of visual thought installations using various media to reimagine the confluence of the past and the present. The programmatic element of this work takes place when artists work with the community to build visual literacy through a series of exhibitions and workshops that encourage residents and visitors to understand how language and aesthetic expression connect to their own understanding of place. We promote this work in order to allow participants to join the process of realization, contributing to the artists' installations until the works become the art of the city, belonging not to one, but to all.

As a UNESCO city, Évora appears to the outside world as an immutable architectural and archaeological site, built on centuries of history. However, we see the city as a vibrant, layered, and living space that creates new stories when people engage in visual literacy, seeing themselves and their experiences as part of the cultural fabric that sustains spaces and creates meaning.

Évora is part of a global heritage that becomes relevant through the people who sustain it, visit it, and are inspired by it. From inviting new ideas to researching historical concepts and structures, the Évora NAU initiative bridges the intangible and tangible elements of multiple legacies and multiple languages (visual, oral, and written) that enhance the sensory dynamics of the city that is seen, felt, and heard. These diverse influences activate the limbic resonances that have shaped the city over time.

Évora NAU connects people to Évora as the city that has changed and endured over time, drawing them into the heart of what Évora is—a powerful and aesthetically cohesive cultural beacon that provides shelter to people, ideas, and history in the making. Our intentions and impact are achieved by amplifying the greater purpose of art as a source of narrative power and highlighting the powerful role that cooperation and visual language play in the everyday life of a place.

Évora NAU (New Arts Uprising) workshops and events highlight Évora as a place of sustained creative expression. Our programming features local and international artists whose installations and performances speak to visual narratives of portraiture, place and culture, form and memory. These exhibitions share cross-curricular aesthetics that connect through educational materials and workshops to community members, bringing them together with artists to initiate conversations, collaborate, and build something greater for the entire city.

We provide programs throughout the year, expanding the Évora NAU initiative and demonstrating the power of visual language and literacy. Community participation is necessary to achieve our collective goals of finding common ground through creativity and better connecting intangible and tangible heritage.