Education: Camila Araújo Alves

"To speak and work with education for me is to talk about activism and diversity, it is about life affirmation. It means discussing projects that select those who are entitled to access and those who are not entitled to access. We, people with disabilities, are daily informed of our non-rights to access numerous spaces, contents, relationships and platforms. I’d like to dedicate my participation in this exhibition to all the people who have their lives crossed by exclusion and who fight for the transformation of the world in a more just and dignified place for all of us."

Camila Alves is a clinical psychologist and Arts-educator and describes herself as a white, middle-class, blind woman who relies on her guide dog for most of her day to day activities. Since Covid-19 pandemic started, she chose to describe herself this way, to highlight her privilege in the current scenario of rising inequalities, so no one would take her existence as the reality of people with disabilities in Brazil.

She has been working for over 12 years in Education programmes of Cultural Centres and Museums in Brazil, advocating for accessibility and education programmes in cultural and arts centres. She has published a paper called “What if we tried more? A non-technical manual on accessibility in cultural spaces ”. As a researcher, her current research themes are in the field of disability studies and the interface between art, culture, gender and animals.