EMERGE is a non-profit cultural association founded in 2016 in Torres Vedras, whose main objective is to promote contemporary art made by emerging artists. This promotion is carried out through the various projects developed in partnership with public and private institutions, curators, artists, galleries, among others, addressing contemporary subjects.
We develop visual art projects with a special focus on fine arts and their disciplinary intersections. Currently and the next year EMERGE is supported by the Portuguese Republic – Ministry of Culture Directorate-General of Arts. The programme of activities is constituted by diversified initiatives that are mostly free entry, calling for active participation. This participation is achieved through effective mediation actions that this association has developed since its foundation.
In order to fulfill its aims, EMERGE has publishing projects, of which we highlight the annual publication Portuguese Emerging Art, distributed in Europe; the Art Book Fair which is an annual initiative that promotes artistic creation in book form; the Jardim Azul which is an art and sustainability project that is inscribed in the ODSLocal network; and the activity in the Casa Azul that is divided between an artistic residence about the Carnival of Torres Vedras, resulting in an exhibition. At the end of the year we present the work of a local artist. In education in art, we develop, in partnership with the Torres Vedras City Hall and Paços – Galeria Municipal de Torres Vedras, the Visual Academy, which is a project dedicated to teenage students inviting them to create a contemporary art exhibition. This annual programme promotes the active contact of these young people with the different professions. The areas are arts creation, production, cultural management, communication and design. In addition to this project, we developed a training programme that stimulates the professionalization of artists, such as the creation of a portfolio, or how to apply for financing programmes, how to structure a cultural project, copyright, finance in the arts, among others. Along with these training courses, EMERGE has a permanent programme called ELO, where we monitor artists’ careers in depth, helping them to achieve their commercial and exhibition objectives more quickly. In the domain of a programme of audience creation that we call AVIVA, we developed in co-creation with Portugal Slam and with the Torres Vedras Arts and Creativity Centre, the Poetry Slam Torres Vedras. EMERGE has partnered, in 2022 with a local performing arts association, PERFORMACT, to create shows to be presented in different cities. In 2022 we created “OBSCURUS” , in 2023 we are initiating “Mulher Múltipla”, which will premiere in 2024.
EMERGE is part of the Portugal entre Patrimónios network, along with another 78 public and private institutions, and is responsible for the education in the art axis.
The Casa Azul is the exhibition space that EMERGE programmes since 2018, lent by the municipality. Focused on stimulating the creation and promotion of contemporary art, produced by emerging artists, the programme integrates a mediation strategy based on the concept of active citizenship in order to promote the approach and participation of the city’s audience to contemporary art. By doing so, the intention is to stimulate the bases of an integrated and intergenerational community with the purpose of strengthening a local cultural dynamic. The exhibition projects presented here are site specific.