From São Paulo to Leeds: Museums, Access and Inclusive Arts Practice

Join us for this seminar with researchers and museum practitioners from Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo, Brazil.

This event warmly welcomes academic Dr Viviane Sarraf and museum practitioners based at the Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo – Gabriela Gotoda, Amanda Santos and Leonardo Sassaki.

The seminar will introduce cultural accessibility and participation in Brazil, as well as insights from staff about the museum’s current programmes, with a focus on art education, access and curation.

In conversation with Dr Jade French, they will also reflect on their visit to the University of Leeds working with Jade and the fellowship team to launch an inclusive arts practice programme in collaboration with the museum.

Speaker biographies 

Amanda Santos holds a degree in Graphic Design from UMC, Visual Arts from FPA, and a postgraduate certificate in “The Nature We Are” from A Casa Tombada. She works as an educator at MAM São Paulo. Her research interests bring together contemporary art, nature, design, and education.

Gabriela Gotoda is a visual arts researcher and curator. She holds a bachelor's degree in Art: History, Criticism, and Curatorship. She works as a curatorial supervisor at the Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo and is responsible for overseeing the museum's publications and has collaborated in the curating of the exhibitions “Lina Bo Bardi and MAM in the Park” (2023), “MAM São Paulo: Where the Modern Meets the Contemporary” (2025), “Here-Elsewhere” (2025), among others.

Jade French is a Future Leaders Fellow based in the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies. Her fellowship is exploring how inclusive arts practice coupled with systemic action research, can offer can be a novel lens into disability rights and social care challenges, as well as a method to generate creative and collaborative alternatives.

Leonardo Sassaki is an educator and visual artist. He studied Visual Arts and is a specialist in inclusive education and audio description, investigating synesthetic and multisensory practices in art education. He was an educator at MAM's (Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo) educational department and currently works on the curatorial team as a Diversity and Accessibility Analyst. He is also the founder of Sentindo os Sentidos [Sensing the Senses], a company that provides cultural accessibility and art education services.

Viviane Sarraf is the curator at the Dorina Nowill Memory Center, Researcher in the Inclusive Art For Wicked Problems project at the University of Leeds; Professor of the Specialization Course in Museology, Culture and Education at Catholic University of São Paulo and at Post-Graduate Program in Museology at University of São Paulo, Founder of Accessible Museums Co. She was Visiting Professor at the Department of Museology at Federal University of Bahia (2023-2025); Coordinator of the Researcher Project The Legacy of Waldisa Russio for Museology at Institute of Brazilian Studies - University of São Paulo (2017-2022), consultant for Brazilian Institute of Museums/Organization of Iberoamerican States (2023), UNESCO/Secretary of Culture of Federal District (2022), creator and curator of the Dorina Nowill Memory Center of the Dorina Nowill Foundation for the Blind-São Paulo (2002-2013) and Professor of the Specialization Course in Cultural Accessibility at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (2013-2014). She has a degree in Art Education, MBA in Museology, Master in Science Information, PhD in Communication and Semiotics and Post-Doc in Museology.

More information

This seminar is free to attend and all are welcome.

For more details, please email Jade French at J.French2@leeds.ac.uk.

Image

Museum of Modern Art of São Paulo. Photo by Ding Musa and João Musa.