From the second half of the twentieth century in the Western world, museums that preserve, study and disseminate their historical collections representing periods of the history and culture of the past, opened their spaces and their collections to the gaze and creativity of contemporary artists who develop multifaceted dialogues within the institutions that host them. This dissertation describes, through examples collected both in the international field and the Portuguese context, some symptomatic cases of this growing trend of contemporary art that develops within more traditional museums across multiple creative strategies and procedures that have contributed to the institutional communication with its audiences. Focusing on the analysis of contemporary exhibitions held in the Museum of Sacred Art of Funchal, this work relates to the intrinsic nature of these projects with some current theories of Arts Education in the framework of museums. The conceptual and aesthetic principles of the specific dialogues between ancient art and contemporary art have been applied in defining a set of educational activities for the school audience, demonstrating that the educational service of a traditional art museum may introduce contemporary art in various forms consequently updating pedagogical perspectives that involve actively its visitors in a context opened to creativity and aesthetic experimentation

Tese de mestrado, Educação artística, Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Belas Artes, 2013