EVA Lisbon

Jai, UHC's creative director, was recently invited to speak at a conference in Lisbon. The conference marked the culmination of a series of successful experimental socially engaged art projects in 7 different challenging neighbourhoods in the city. The series of projects took place under the title of EVA and marked an important change in direction for art in the city, where experimental collaborative practice is still seen as rare.

Jai spoke about projects UHC have undertaken in the UK introducing a range of socially engaged work to the conference audience. Eva Merz from the New Social Art School also gave a talk about her work and in return her and Jai learnt about the issues facing artists working with poor communities in Lisbon.

The conference was hosted by the National Immigration Centre on 23rd Sept 2010. It was introduced by Pedro Calado, representing the City's cultural department who were partners in EVA and Paulo Gouveia from the Clube Português de Artes e Ideias who's amazing studio managed the residencies.