20 and 21 April 2026
9.30-12.30pm CET (Brussels) | 8.30-11.30pm WET (Lisbon)
Online
Trainer: Maria Vlachou

Today, thanks to the continuous promotion of accessibility and the legislation in force, professionals in the cultural sector are more aware of the existence of physical barriers to cultural venues. It is also true, though, that the reflection on accessibility does not go much further than the physical issue and, in this case, does not go beyond the need for ramps and adapted bathrooms.

In a sector that has become accustomed to thinking and affirming that there is no interest in culture in Portugal or that the Portuguese are uneducated and uncultured, it is urgent that cultural agents take a more holistic view of what constitutes “accessibility” and become more aware of the barriers, also social and intellectual, that they themselves create.

Target audience

Professionals in the areas of cultural management, communications, education services / visitor experience / mediation, public relations

Registration fees

Standard: €35
Students / Unemployed: €30
Access Culture members: €25

Registration form

Payment by bank transfer or via PayPal. Details will be sent by our secretariat after receiving the registration form.

Bionote

Maria Vlachou is a Cultural Management and Communications consultant. Founding member and Executive Director of Acesso Cultura | Access Culture, promoting access – physical, social, intellectual – to cultural participation. Author of the bilingual (pt/en) blog Musing on Culture, where she writes about culture, the arts, museums, cultural management and communication, access. She is the manager of the Facebook group Museum texts / Textos em museus and co-manager of the blog Museums and Migration. She participated in the European project RESHAPE – Reflect, Share, Practice, Experiment, having joined the trajectory “Arts and Citizenship”.

In the past, she was Communications Director of São Luiz Municipal Theatre and Head of Communication of Pavilion of Knowledge – Ciência Viva (Lisbon). Board member of ICOM Portugal (2005-2014) and editor of its bulletin. She has collaborated with different programmes of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

Fellow of ISPA – International Society for the Performing Arts (2018, 2020); Alumna of the DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the Kennedy Center in Washington (2011-2013); she has a M.A. in Museum Studies (University College London, 1994) and a B.A. in History and Archaeology (University of Ioannina, Greece, 1992).