Joana Simões Henriques

Joana Simões Henriques graduated in Cultural Communication from the Faculty of Human Sciences, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Lisbon, having specialised at LUMSA – Libera Università Maria Ss. Assunta, Rome – and has a Master’s degree in Studies and Management of Culture from ISCTE, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa.

She has worked in the departments of Curatorship and Collection Management, and Artistic Education, at the CAM – Modern Art Centre, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and has also served on the board of the Paulo Amaro Contemporary Art Gallery. Since 2010, she has been working with the EDP Foundation as an art curator, and where she is also responsible for education programming for museums.

Since 2016, she has been working on the education and public programmes for the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (maat), and has had several essays published. She is a member of the Art, Museums and Digital Cultures cluster at the Art History Institute, FCSH, Universidade Nova de Lisboa and co-founder of the network MID – Museus para a Inclusão na Demência (Museums for Inclusion in Dementia), Portugal.

Her research interests include museums, art, and culture as a tool for social and human development. She has organised projects and conferences on these topics.

Joana Simões Henriques will be speaking at the Museums & Public Programs Summit 2026:

Beyond the Frame: Choreography and the Photographic Image

What happens when a photograph begins to move? This presentation explores After the Frame: Dance performance with Francisco Camacho, a site-specific performance inspired by Jeff Wall’s iconic imagery, where choreography unfolds within the exhibition space, in the show Jeff Wall – Time Stands Still. Photographs, 1980-2023. Revisiting Gust (1997), Francisco Camacho and invited performers activate the tension, stillness and latent drama embedded in the photographic image. Moving through the gallery, the performers embody instability, encounter and disruption, inviting audiences into an immersive and sensory experience. This talk reflects on the creative process and the potential of performance to transform how we see, feel and inhabit visual art.