Ana Maria Queiroz de Andrade and Virgínia Pereira Cavalcanti are professors at the Federal University of Pernambuco and the founders of the Imaginário Pernambucano project. But that’s only the start. The project began in 2000 with the creation of the University’s Benfica Cultural Centre, aimed at strengthening ties between academia and society.

Since then, they have been promoting community initiatives that, stemming from folk art, work with and develop communities around the state of Pernambuco, of which Recife is the capital. If in terms of community design/craft development Imaginário’s projects may not seem to offer anything substantially new, it’s when we look at the wider scope of their action that we realise craft is only the start. Whenever they start a new project, Imaginário’s team gathers other university professors and students from areas such as engineering, planning and social sciences to tackle the community’s needs from as many angles as possible, in an integrated, sustainable way. (more…)