Coffeepaste
Rita Lucas Coelho, Carlos Custódio, and I took a Performing Arts Production and Management course in 2006. What started at the end of the course as a simple blog posting job and training opportunities for artists, has grown into a reference site for the Portuguese arts community. The aim of the site is to be a meeting point, where arts professionals can find work and training, and where the general public can find articles and interviews with cultural agents, an events agenda, and related resources. In 2017 Coffeepaste has successfully started organising training under its own brand. Part of Linguagem Próxima cultural association, our projects include cultural production, artistic creation, and the organisation of events.
contraCenas
I have always attended many cultural events over the years. In late 2017 I thought “why not write about them?”. So, contraCenas was born. I started writing about theatre, dance, performance, books, exhibitions, cinema, and books, and the site took off. I have since been putting together a growing team of writers, each in their area of expertise. The next goals are, besides growing the team, to expand outside Lisbon to places like Porto and Guimarães.
The Start Zone
Since I am “Somewhere in the intersection of Digital and Culture”, in 2014 I started my “Digital” project. I called it The Start Zone and it is a site featuring interviews with startups, with a preference for highlighting the Portuguese landscape. I also publish some articles on technology and digital issues. In 2016 I put together interviews with 13 Portuguese Startup Founders, and published the book “The Path to Success”. More about it in the Books Section. I plan to keep highlighting success stories from around the world, and keep reporting from conferences like Web Summit, GO Youth Conference, and WordCamp.