On July 5, 2024, CIEd researcher Gina C. Lemos co-authored the oral communication “Artistic practices, involvement and well-being: The Recriar-se project” at the II International Seminar on ‘Education, Artistic Practices and Inclusion: Projects in co-creation’, at the School of Education of the Setúbal Polytechnic Institute. This seminar focused on the presentation, discussion and academic and political reflection on the co-creation of educational, artistic and social projects as modes of participation, intervention, inclusion and the co-construction of democracy.

The artistic and social project Recriar-se, which began in 2014 and is being developed at the Centro Social de S. Francisco Xavier (CSSFX), run by Cáritas Diocesana de Setúbal, is a unique training project. Based on the premise of “doing with” and not “doing for” and on the voluntary participation of all those involved, artist-mediators, the institution’s technicians and homeless men and women develop artistic practices (in music, photography and the visual arts) through collaborative processes, where they seek to reconstruct life paths, creating conditions for the empowerment and inclusion of their participants.

The research carried out between September 2021 and December 2023 led to the production of four e-books and a documentary of different natures and assumptions, interdependent and complementary to each other: the e-book of an academic-scientific nature, “Artistic Practices, Involvement and Well-being – The Recriar-se Project” includes the theoretical framework of the research project, a description of the project, and a presentation and discussion of its contributions and challenges; and three others, one related to Music, “The Recriar-se Project – Music: Musical practices and feeling like a person again”, one related to Photography, ‘The Recreate Yourself Project – Photography: the gaze that sees’, and another related to Plastic Arts, ”The Recreate Yourself Project – Plastic Arts: Drawing and Painting beyond what can be seen”. For its part, the documentary, “Recriar-se: Ter Voz e Sonhar”, made from material provided by the Centro Social S. Francisco Xavier, Cáritas Diocesana de Setúbal, through a wide range of photographs, recordings of sessions, shows and exhibitions held as part of the Project, provides a look at the uniqueness of the Project.