The next edition of the Art and Diplomacy seminar by Amb. Randi Charno Levine, Honorary Professor of Art and Diplomacy at UCP, hosted by the Lisbon Consortium, will take place on 2 November, at Universidade Católica Portuguesa. The program will bring to Lisbon Ana Sokoloff (art advisor and Founding Partner of Sokoloff + Associates), Deborah Kass (artist), and Lisa Phillips (Director Emerita, New Museum). The Art and Diplomacy seminar is an extracurricular program organized for the Lisbon Consortium community and open to public.
Lecture
Cultural Diplomacy Today: A World in Need
2 November 17:00-18:00, Sala Exposições (Building 4)
Amb. Randi Charno Levine
with Ana Sokoloff, Deb Kass and Lisa Phillips
International alliances are shifting, and the cultural ties that support them are under strain. In this lecture, former U.S. Ambassador to Portugal Randi Charno Levine looks at the role of cultural diplomacy in today’s geopolitical climate. She draws on her time in Lisbon, where her contemporary Art in Embassies exhibition, Celebrating Diversity, used the Ambassador’s Residence as a space for dialogue on democracy, representation and freedom of expression. She then asks what happens when governments change what they are willing to show about themselves, and what that means for artists, museums, curators and a nation’s credibility abroad. Artist Deborah Kass, New Museum Director Emerita Lisa Phillips and art advisor Ana Sokoloff join the conversation throughout. The session ends with practical lessons for students who want to build intentional, sustainable people-to-people ties through culture.
Panel discussion
Who Gets to Decide? Cultural Value, Institutional Power and Global Art Markets
2 November 18:30-20:00, Católica Lisbon School of Business & Economics (Building 5), Auditorium 511
Ana Sokoloff
(Founding Partner, Sokoloff + Associates)
Deb Kass
(artist)
Lisa Phillips
(Director Emerita, New Museum)
Chair: Amb. Randi Charno Levine
Artists, galleries, collectors, museums, auction houses, funders and governments all help decide what art is seen, valued and preserved. So when their interests clash, who has the final say? This evening panel brings together views from diplomacy, institutional leadership, artistic practice and the art market. The panelists take that question from five angles: who assigns value, who holds power, who gives work legitimacy, who pays, and who builds relationships across borders. Drawing on decades of experience, they look at how museums grow without losing their purpose, how artists protect their independence once they succeed, and how money and influence shape culture. They also ask whether all of these activities are, in the end, forms of cultural diplomacy. The program closes with questions from students.
We are honored to welcome Carles Guerra to lecture the seminar “From Museums to Biennales and Back” in the Culture Studies program at FCH-UCP in the fall semester 2026-2027.
Carles Guerra (Amposta, 1965) is an independent researcher and curator based in Barcelona. He holds a PhD in Fine Arts from the University of Barcelona and is Associate Professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Guerra has curated the Spanish Pavilion, Los Restos by Oriol Vilanova, at the Venice Biennale in 2026, served as Director of the Primavera Fotogràfica de Catalunya (2004), as well as Director of La Virreina Centre de la Imatge (2009–2011), Chief Curator at MACBA (2011–2013), and Executive Director of the Fundació Antoni Tàpies (2015–2020). Since 2023, he has been Artistic Director of the Museu de l’Art Prohibit in Barcelona. His curatorial projects include exhibitions dedicated to Francesc Tosquelles, Art & Language, Perejaume, Antoni Tàpies, Allan Sekula, Susan Meiselas, Harun Farocki, Ariella Aïsha Azoulay and many others. In 2023, he was appointed Inaugural Visiting Professor in Catalan Studies at New York University and the Institut Ramon Llull.
A new series of podcasts by the MA students in Culture Studies, related with the exhibition What We Can(‘t) Hold , has been released.
The first episode features Fernão Cruz, talking about fragility, humour, and the story behind his work Cair em Palco that makes part of the exhibition.
The second episode is a conversation with Manuel Botelho and it reflects on memory, war, and the story behind his work confidential/declassified: combat ration that makes part of the exhibition.
‘What We Can(‘t) Hold’, curated by students of Culture Studies (UCP) under the Curatorial and Scientific Coordination by Prof. Luísa Santos opens on 29 April 2026 at 18:30 in Galería Fundação Amélia de Mello.
‘What We Can(‘t) Hold’ is an invitation to pause, to look closely and to hold things more lightly, while reflecting on the multiple dimensions of fragility.
When everything we hold firm seems to be collapsing under the weight of uncertainty and rapid transformation, ‘What We Can(‘t) Hold’ considers fragility not as something that breaks but as a force that shapes how we live, remember, and relate to one another. Bringing together nine artists and a selection of works from the CAM – Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian Collection, this exhibition offers a reflection on multiple dimensions of fragility.
The works displayed are situated along a spectrum of intertwined notions of fragility: the personal, the structural and the frictional. Each dimension offers a different way of understanding how vulnerability cracks, bends and sometimes falls apart as soon as we touch it.
The structural dimension looks outward at the vast web that seems to hold our society together. It questions what happens when the systems we depend on begin to fracture, and injustices resurface as history repeats itself. Manuel Botelho (1950, Lisbon), through his ‘101.rç-cmb (from the series Confidential / Declassified: combat food)‘ (2007-2008), collects artefacts of moments that he didn’t witness and puts them on full display, while Miguel Palma (1964, Lisbon), in ‘Upa! Union of the People of Angola‘ (2006), seems to lock them away in plain sight. Here, fragility emerges not as a weakness, but as a signal that transformation is both unavoidable and necessary.
The personal dimension directs us inward into the delicate architecture of ourselves. It reflects identities that are always shifting, the collections of memories we archive within ourselves, and the persistent urge to hold on to what is fleeting. Yonamine (1975, Luanda), with ‘Eu não sou eu‘ (2004), and Maria Altina Martins (1953, Luanda) with ‘Time – Childhood, Adolescence, Maturity‘ (1997/2000), arrange fragments, textures of daily life, discarded materials, and scraps of memory to evoke this unstable construction, while Maria Antónia Siza (1940, Oporto – 1973, Oporto), in her series ‘Untitled‘ (60s) construct potential images leaving gaps to be filled in by the gaze of others. In ‘Falling On Stage‘ (2021), Fernão Cruz’s (1995, Lisbon) protagonist is in free fall, rendered vulnerable before the gaze of an audience.
The frictional dimension exists in a liminal space where the forces of the past and future, destruction and renewal, and the personal and collective converge. Margaret Benyon (1940, Birmingham – 2016, London) gives these dimensions holographic images that resist being grasped in her ‘Conjugal Series: Hands and Rice and Binding 2‘ (1983). In her ‘No trace of accelerator‘ (2017), Emily Wardill (1977, Rugby) transforms us into spectators of the qualities that never sit still. Finally, Gabriela Albergaria’s ‘To turn around 40‘ (2001) weaves elements of nature with artificiality.
Together, these perspectives invite us to reconsider fragility as a force of revelation of what we choose to preserve, allow us to die or rebuild. Ultimately, ‘What We Can(‘t) Hold’ is an invitation to pause, to look closely and to hold things more lightly as we navigate continuous change.
This exhibition, organised in the context of the partnership between The Lisbon Consortium of the Universidade Católica Portuguesa and CAM – Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian, was curated by the MA students in Culture Studies (seminar of Curatorial Practices), for the Amélia de Mello Foundation Gallery, at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, in Lisbon.
The exhibition guide written by the 3rd-grade students, Class B, Elementary School Sampaio Garrido is available here.
This exhibition also includes a Podcast with a series of interviews; all the episodes will be available in this playlist.
Organisation Universidade Católica Portuguesa Cultura @ Católica 2026
Artists Featured
Emily Wardill; Fernão Cruz; Gabriela Albergaria; Manuel Botelho; Margaret Benyon; Maria Altina Martins; Maria Antónia Siza; Miguel Palma; Yonamine (All works: Collection CAM – Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian)
Curatorial and scientific coordination Luísa Santos
Curated by Editorial: Anika Borko; Sarah Zammit Munro; Melissa Liebertha; Direndra Selvanayagam; Sarah Tober; Anna-Sohpie Löhr Communication: Justin Stewart Ross; Natalia del Río; Leonor Marques dos Santos Queiroz; Silvia Lomdardini; Léanne Charron; Iana Kardanova Installation design: Amal Abu Nafisah; Imani D. Cooper; Margarida Dias; Margarida da Fonseca; Giulia Benetti; Circé Poisson; Tatiana Fraisse Paralell programme: Lucille Gerebtzoff; Yoosun Choi; Hajer Khader; Vitor Fonseca; Margarida Martins Raimundo; Constança Mafra (Students of the seminar in Curatorial Practices, The Lisbon Consortium – 2025/26)
Amélia de Mello Foundation Gallery – Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Director: Paulo Campos Pinto Assistant: Benjamim Lucas Pires Production: Creative Industries Programmes by SC – Sara Cavaco Graphic Design: Íris Sousa Installation: Feirexpo
CAM – Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian
Head of Exhibitions: Rita Albergaria Museography: Laurindo Marta Collection (registrar): Isabel Vicente Collection (museography): Rui Nunes; Jennifer Coito
Amélia de Mello Foundation Gallery – Universidade Católica Portuguesa. João Paulo II University Library Building, Palma de Cima
On 20 January 2026, the Lisbon Consortium welcomed Philippe Vergne, Director of the Serralves Contemporary Art Museum in Porto. The open lecture “The Museum as a Muse” was part of the seminar Arts Markets and the Practices of Collecting by Professor Maura Marvão (Phillips Auction House).
Vergne discussed the meaning of the museum by referencing a variety of art institutions and museums, exhibitions, and artworks that have marked his career. Focusing on the museum as a space for experimentation, Vergne highlighted its disruptive potentials, especially in interrogating the spaces-in-between within the histories of art.
With an emphasis on acquisition, the lecture explored the responsibilities of art institutions and curators towards artists and society, including practical advice regarding tensions that may be professionally challenging yet productive.
We are honored by this exchange and look forward to the next occasion.
The Lisbon Consortium offers a seminar on Arts and Diplomacy by Prof. Randi Charno Levine, Honorary Professor in Art and Diplomacy. The Opening session of the seminar is on 7 October, 17:00-18:30, Sala de Exposições (Library building).
The Art and Diplomacy seminar consists of 7 sessions, including interactive discussions and international guest speakers.
Randi Charno Levine is an arts advocate and a diplomat who served as the United States Ambassador to Portugal from 2022 to 2025 with a deep commitment to cultural diplomacy. In the opening session of the Art and Diplomacy seminar, Levine will discuss the meaning of cultural diplomacy through a series of initiatives that took place during her ambassadorship, such as the exhibition Celebrating Diversity – Democracy and Representation in the Arts at the Ambassador’s residence as part of the “Art in Embassies” program, as well as Hip Hop Diplomacy with Portuguese rapper Sam the Kid, Culinary Diplomacy with American Chef Art Smith, and L’USAfonia, a music event that celebrated the Black History Month in Portugal.
Beyond her diplomatic service, Levine has held leadership and advisory roles with a range of prominent institutions, including the Barbara and Edward Netter Center for Community Partnerships, the Hamptons International Film Festival, Roundabout Theatre Company, NYU Langone Health, the High Line, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Meridian International Center, among others.
Opening session:
Art and Diplomacy: Setting the Framework
07.10.2025 Tuesday 17:00 – 18:30 (Sala de Exposições)
Next sessions:
16.10.2025 Thursday 17:00 – 18:30
09.03.2026 Monday 17:00 – 18:30
10.03.2026 Tuesday 17:00 – 18:30
11.03.2026 Wednesday 17:00 – 18:30
12.03.2026 Thursday 17:00 – 18:30
13.03.2026 Friday 17:00 – 18:30
Participants are encouraged to attend all sessions of the seminar, but it is also possible to attend individual sessions.
