Vânia Rodrigues is a practitioner-researcher with a renowned track-record as an independent arts manager, curator and consultant, having worked for over 15 years’ in various capacities in the performing arts sector, both in the institutional sphere and with independent artistic structures.
She holds a PhD in Artistic Studies – Theater and Performative Studies from the University of Coimbra (2022) and a Master in Cultural Policies and Cultural Management from the City University of London (2009), both awarded with Distinction.
Among other recent assignments she oversaw the artistic and executive management of mala voadora, a well-known collective working on the cutting edge of international contemporary theatre which has performed in over 12 countries in the EU and the USA. She also acted as Strategy Advisor for Artemrede, a Portuguese theatre network between 17 cities. In that capacity she advised the Executive Director and supervised the writing and management of various national and international funding grants and drafted the network’s strategic plan 2015-2020. She has been a consultant for projects such as Guimarães 2012 European Capital of Culture, D.Maria II National Theatre, or EGEAC, Lisbon’s municipal agency for culture, administrating +20 cultural spaces. She has teached and written extensively on arts production, and is regularly invited as a jury member in competitive support for creative practitioners. Recently, she was appointed curator for the Creative Europe 2021-27 Launch Conference, as part of the Portuguese Presidency of the EU, in charge of the Panel “Mobility and sustainability: challenges ahead for the performing arts”, whereby she intensified her engagement with sustainability issues in the arts production cycle.
She is the author of two books on production and management in the performing arts, “AS PRODUTORAS - Produção e Gestão Cultural em Portugal. Trajectos Profissionais” [THE PRODUCERS - Arts management and production in Portugal. Professional Trajectories](2020) and “Modus Operandi – Produção e Gestão nas Artes Performativas” [Modus Operandi - Production and Management in the Performing Arts](2022).
Currently, she is Invited Assistant Professor at Instituto de Investigação Interdisciplinar | University of Coimbra and Principal Researcher at CEIS20 – Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies | University of Coimbra where she co-leads the R&D project “Modes Production – Performing Arts in Transition”, and is a Principal Investigator of FCT-funded project GREENARTS, dedicated to analyzing the ways in which the performing arts perceive and act upon the growing demands of social and environmental sustainability.
