Maria Vlachou
Executive Director, Acesso Cultura | Access Culture
Maria Vlachou is a Cultural Management and Communications consultant. She is a founding member and Executive Director of Acesso Cultura, working for the improvement of 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 was Communications Director of São Luiz Municipal Theatre and Head of Communication of Pavilion of Knowledge – Ciência Viva (Lisbon). She is a board member of ICOM Portugal (2005-2014) and the editor of its bulletin. Fellow of ISPA – International Society for the Performing Arts (2018); 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).
Take a look at Maria’s Meet our Presenters interview series here.
This interview is an additional opportunity to showcase our presenters’ work, pathways to practice and explore the stand out moments and challenges in their career to date.
About Acesso Cultura
Acesso Cultura is a cultural association based in Portugal. The mission is to promote physical, social and intellectual access to cultural participation, by organising training courses, public debates, seminars and an annual conference. They also carry out access audits and consultation in various areas related to access. Acesso Cultura works directly with culture professionals in order to help them identify barriers to cultural participation for the general public. They have been collaborating closely with museums and theatres around Portugal in order to assist them in the implementation of access services (audio description, sign language interpretation, augmentative communication, relaxed sessions, etc.). In 2018, they launched the website Cultura Acessível, offering an overview on accessible culture in Portugal.