Visual Arts Students Create Painting for Environmental Awareness

Visual Arts students from Lusófona University have created a painting for environmental awareness, highlighting the species from Paul de Manique do Intendente (Azambuja), as part of the interdisciplinary project Paul NATURA - KNOW to Protect.

This artistic intervention was conceived by a group of first-year students from the Visual Arts course, within the Department of Cinema and Media Arts, at the School of Communication, Arts, Architecture and Information Technologies (ECATI) of Lusófona University.

The creation of the canvas resulted from an interdisciplinary research process that initially involved the production of a series of illustrations of various animal species from Paul de Manique do Intendente. These illustrations were subsequently developed into a painting project intended for the atrium of the local Integrated Primary School.

Guided by Professor Inês Andrade Marques, the students visited Paul de Manique do Intendente, receiving scientific support from Professors Anabela Cruces and Susana Dias, ornithologist Vítor Encarnação, and nature photographer Paulo Rocha. Among all the painting proposals presented by the students, Catarina Neves' work was selected and executed in December 2020 by Catarina Neves, Laura Aires, Leonor Varo, and Tomás Vilhena, with technical support from Professors Inês Andrade Marques, Margarida Prieto, Rui Macedo, and Teresa Palma Rodrigues.

The constraints brought by the pandemic delayed the immediate placement of the canvas in its definitive location, but it will now be inaugurated on 5th June 2021.

This project is part of the Environmental Fund - Notice nº 7780/2020, published in the Diário da República, 2nd series - Nº 95 - 15th May 2020, which supports a new environmental culture under the National Environmental Education Strategy 2020, aiming to protect terrestrial life. The project is coordinated by Professor Anabela Cruces, from Environmental Engineering - Faculty of Engineering of Lusófona University, and results from a partnership between COFAC - Lusófona University, the Municipality of Azambuja, the Alto de Azambuja School Group, and the Union of Parishes of Manique do Intendente, Vila Nova de São Pedro, and Maçussa.