Museu Nacional do Azulejo
The exhibition “Cerâmica no Ar.Co” in 1989 is the result of Ar.Co’s and the Museu Nacional do Azulejo’s first collaboration. Five international artists/ceramists show their work, along with two Portuguese connected to the school and twenty students from the Ceramics department. The participants are: Aline Favre, Arnold Zimmerman, Christopher Gustin, Nancy Smith, Patrick Loughram, Alberto Cidraes, Manuel da Bernarda, Alda Reis, Alexandra Aires, Ana Luísa Domingos, Ana Vasconcelos, Carmina Martinho, Cristina Matias, Francisco Muralha, Helena Abrantes, Inácia Silva, João Germano, Leonor Irra, Martim Santa Rita, Paulo Reis, António Bota Filipe, João Gouveia, João Leitão, José António Correia da Silva, José da Cunha, Manuel Osório de Castro and Paula Souto. About a decade later (1998), the exhibition “Três Anos de Cerâmica no Ar.Co” focuses on the work of six ceramists (Jesus Silva, Anabela Camelo, Alice Anjos, Helena Abrantes, Ilda Bragança and Rute Magalhães). Given that contemporary authors in this area of the arts/crafts hardly ever see their work being promoted in Portugal, these shows constitute important landmarks and, in what concerns Ar.Co’s Ceramics, demonstrate the progresses achieved since the beginning of the training programs in the late 1980’s. By 2004, the Museum thinks it already worthwhile to present the retrospective “Oficinas de Cerâmica do Ar.Co 1987-2004”, showing work by Alexandre Rebotim, Alice Anjos, Ana Ferreira, Anabela Camelo, Bela Silva, Carmina Anastácio, Elsa Figueiredo, Helena Abrantes, Helena Leiria, Ilda Duarte Bragança, Jesus Silva, Maria do Lavre, Martim Santa Rita, Nuno Tomaz, Paula Brito and Teresa Ramos. In 2005, an agreement is reached with the Instituto Português dos Museus, whereby the ceramics in Ar.Co’s Arts Collection will stay at the Museu Nacional do Azulejo on an extended loan. Some of these works will be seen in the museum’s permanent exhibitions and some will integrate in 2006 its lauching exhibition of “Rotas de Cerâmica”, a program resulting from the Communitary Initiative EQUAL. On the 20th of May of 2006, in Museums’ Night, teachers and students from Ar.Co’s Ceramics department show a selection of pieces resulting from the thematic exercise “Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro” and fabricate tiles in a live session (another participation in this initiative, including presenting and experimenting with traditional techniques of tile painting, will occur in 2009). In recognition of Ar.Co’s role in the training and in the promotion of Ceramics in Portugal, the Associação dos Amigos do Museu Nacional do Azulejo invites in 2003 Ar.Co’s Executive Director, Manuel Castro Caldas, to integrate the group of its founding members.
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"Ceramics at Ar.Co" (catalogue cover), Museu Nacional do Azulejo, 1989.
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Exhibiton "Ceramics at Ar.Co", Museu Nacional do Azulejo, 1989. Works by Christopher Gustin.
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"Ceramics at Ar.Co", Museu Nacional do Azulejo, 1989. Pieces by Ana Vasconcelos, Francisco Muralha and Inácia Silva.
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"Ceramics at Ar.Co", Museu Nacional do Azulejo, 1989. Pieces by Alexandra Aires, Inácia Silva and Martim Santa Rita.
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"Ceramics at Ar.Co" (catalogue interior), Museu Nacional do Azulejo, 1989.
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"3 years of Ceramics at Ar.Co" (poster/brochure), Museu Nacional do Azulejo, 1998.
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Catalogue cover of exhibition "Oficinas de Cerâmica do Ar.Co 1987-2004", Museu do Azulejo, Lisbon, 2004.
