José António Falcão

Art historian, museologist, and cultural manager. He serves as an advisor at the Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage, Director-General of the Terras sem Sombra Festival, Vice-President of Europae Thesauri, and coordinator of the UNESCO Center for Architecture and Art. His work has focused particularly on the study of cultural heritage, for which he has contributed to its dissemination by curating exhibitions, such as Between Heaven and Earth, The Forms of the Spirit, The Invention of the World, Loci Iacobi – Lieux de Saint Jacques, Places of Santiago, Ultreia, and On the Way under the Stars – Santiago and the Pilgrimage to Compostela.

From 1984 to 2017, he directed the Department of Historical and Artistic Heritage of the Diocese of Beja, where he received national awards (Reynaldo dos Santos; Vasco Vil’Alva; Tree of Life) and international recognition (Europa Nostra).

He has held positions as a senior technician at the Museum of Évora, director of Casa dos Patudos – Alpiarça Museum, advisor to the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, and president of OPART. He presided over the Portuguese Association of Friends of Religious Monuments; the Royal Lusitanian Archaeological Society; and the Portuguese Association of Museums of the Catholic Church. He also served as Secretary-General of the National Commission of Sacred Art and Cultural Heritage of the Church and as Deputy Director of the National Secretariat for Cultural Heritage of the Church.

He has taught Art History and Museology at the Portuguese Catholic University; University of Lisbon; University of Valencia; Federal University of Minas Gerais; and Western Michigan University. He is a member of the National Academy of Fine Arts, the Portuguese Academy of History, and similar institutions in several countries