From music to contemporary circus, theatre and dance, the Municipality of Vila Nova de Famalicão is going to promote nearly two dozen cultural activities in co-creation with the community until 2027.
Under the ‘Há Cultura 2024-2027’ banner and with funding from the European Union through the Northern Regional Programme 2030, the municipality will promote artistic initiatives in a co-production with the Narciso Ferreira Theatre, with the support of eight local artistic partners (INAC - Instituto Nacional de Artes do Circo, Fértil Cultural, ITZ-Intranzyt Cia ®, A Casa ao Lado, ACE - Escola de Artes - Polo de Famalicão, O Eixo do Jazz - Associação Luso-Galaica para Promoção do Jazz, Momento - Artistas Independentes and Cineclube de Joane) and two regional ones (PELE Associação Social e Cultural and Ondamarela).
‘Over the last few years, we have consistently invested in the implementation of artistic and cultural expression projects and practices that prioritise community involvement, with a view to social inclusion and the training of audiences and new artists,’ said the mayor of Famalicense, Mário Passos. ‘We saw this application as an opportunity to reinforce a cultural strategy that is already in place and has been successful,’ he adds.
Between 2025 and 2027, 14 artistic residencies with the community will be promoted in each of the territories of Vila Nova de Famalicão's Inter-Freguesia Social Commissions (CSIF), in the field of performing and visual arts, as well as three cinema meetings and an art and community meeting, whose main objective will be the social inclusion of vulnerable groups through artistic practices.
It should be noted that the Há Cultura 2024-2027 pilot project took place at the end of last year, with the ‘Jazz Choir’, under the artistic guidance of O Eixo do Jazz, and resulted in an unprecedented jazz concert starring 25 citizens from Famalicense.
Currently under development is “What Are You Laughing At?” (‘Tás a Rir do Quê?’), a co-creation project organised by INAC and Fértil, together with the parish communities of Gondifelos, Cavalões, Outiz and Louro, around the intangible heritage of these parishes, with contemporary circus as its artistic base and the Casa da Pedreira in Gondifelos as the stage for the community sessions.
The ‘Há Cultura’ municipal project began in 2019 and is a cultural decentralisation project that aims to train new audiences, empower local agents, promote access to cultural enjoyment and create new local cultural dynamics. Between 2020 and 2022, under the auspices of ‘Há Cultura | Cultura Para Todos’, a project co-financed by NORTE 2020 through the European Social Fund, 17 cultural co-creation actions were implemented in Vila Nova de Famalicão, involving nearly 900 citizens from Famalicão.
Since then, and in a commitment made by the local executive, six more community co-creation projects have been developed, all over the municipality, in partnership with the artistic institutions that make up the ‘Sobre o Palco’ network, a collaborative platform made up of nearly two dozen artistic organisations from Famalicão.
