Hugo Cruz^PT

He obtained his PhD from the University of Porto with a thesis entitled ‘Community Artistic Practices and Civic and Political Participation: experiences of theatre groups in Brazil and Portugal’; He holds a postgraduate qualification in Social Theatre and Socio-Educational Intervention from Ramon Llull University (Barcelona) and has trained in dramaturgy at the Académie Internationale des Arts du Spectacle (Paris), the Theatre of the Oppressed Centre (Rio de Janeiro) and Odin Teatret (Denmark).

He is a visiting lecturer at the School of Arts, University of Évora, and a researcher at CIIE-University of Porto and CHAIA-University of Évora.

He edited the books “Art and Community” (2015), “Art and Hope” (2019), “Art, Reinvention and Futures” (2023), published by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and authored “Artistic Practices, Participation and Politics”, published in Portugal (2021), Brazil (2022), Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Argentina and Chile (2023). He is the author of the booklet “Creating Courage: questions to bring about participatory artistic actions”, a publication by the PNA, Portugal (2025).

He is a member of the external evaluation team for the PARTIS / Art for Change Initiative – Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation/BPI Foundation/La Caixa.

He was artistic director of MEXE – International Art and Community Encounter and the Imaginarius Festival, amongst other curatorial projects, and of various theatre projects co-created with local communities, mainly in Portugal, Spain and Brazil.

He provides consultancy and training in various fields – local authorities, festivals and foundations (e.g.: Festival de las Arts Comunitàries de Catalunya, Braga 2027 European Capital of Culture bid). He is currently the artistic director of DESEJAR – Movement for Arts and Common Places and of the project “What do we do with this?” (Braga25 – Portuguese Capital of Culture).