In contemporary times, museums are increasingly eager to reach new audiences and make a difference in people's lives. In addition to the exhibition activity, the museum institution now seeks to generate events of all kinds (conferences, debates, workshops, symposia, visits to reserves, launches of publications, etc.) criticism. […]

Within the scope of this new dynamic, this publication, The museum as a vehicle for critical and social development, gives an account of the work carried out during three and a half years by the Educational Service at the Atelier-Museu Júlio Pomar and appears as the opportune way and moment to reflect on the role of this service in the broader domain of the museum's action.

The Educational Service started with the opening of the equipment on the 5th of April 2013 as it considered itself indispensable for the creation of tools related to works of art and exhibitions which, in themselves, involve the proposition of discourses and ideas; and fundamental to help structure a space for the construction of subjectivity and ideological positioning, which is all the more effective the more critical thinking habits there are. This is what constitutes true freedom and it is this space that museums, often through educational services, aim to implement. Is there a concept that is more difficult to fulfill and to help build than freedom?

[…] The Educational Service can instill the idea that contact with art involves a «common responsibility»: the ability that citizens have together, some artists and others not, some more specialized and others less, to transform their life and the world they inhabit. This means that subjects participate in the construction and representation of their space, and have the ability to express their voice, appearing and making themselves heard. In this way, the myth of origin and destiny are inverted, the receiver is given power of transformation, the artistic work is thought of as a device that participates in this modification and the museum can become a vehicle for critical and social development. . [Sara Antonia Matos]