Sara Machado

A decade ago, my interest in artistic mobility has emerged and “drove me” into personal and professional decisions. Cultural management master’s degree was the milestone from where I´ve start to build a growing tree of motivations, a bubbling network and an endless thirsty to keep learning and doing. Since then, I´ve been privileged enough to be deeply engaged in artistic-driven projects in four different countries and tour extensively in four different continents.

More recently, I felt the need to understand more acutely the impact that Politics has in Culture and how can they be linked and fostered. Therefore, I took the challenge to combine a hectic job of Cultural Manager with a demanding masters of “Political Science and International Relations”, plus a research project on Cultural Diplomacy in Brussels at Pearle * Live Performance Europe. The effort couldn’t pay off more nicely. Nowadays, I share my time and motivation between two projects.

As CUMPLICIDADES- Lisbon International Contemporary Dance Festival managing director, I´m committed to achieve a more stable and sustainable work environment. At a national scope, the festival promotes the development of contemporary dance through co-productions, showcase and audience-development initiatives. As for the international dimension, CUMPLICIDADES aims to foster the collaboration with MED and Middle East regions, in a longer-term perspective and beyond showcasing.

Next to that, PERFORMING ARTS PORTUGAL - aims to promote Portuguese Performing artists abroad. To coordinate this “baby-steps” project is being quite a journey! I´m looking forward to continuing this adventure by embracing new challenges and become an active “reshaper”. To contribute and simultaneously learn from “What framework and tools do artists working transnationally need and how to provide them?” or “How to create open, inclusive and flexible governance models?” trajectories will certainly mean a step forward in my professional and personal path.