Paula Maria Vieira Reaes Pinto lives and works in Lisbon and Évora, Portugal. She is a visual artist who develop a participatory art and design practice with underprivileged communities since 2003. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Visual Arts and Design, School of the Arts, University of Évora. She is an integrated researcher of the Centre for Art History and Artistic Research (CHAIA), University of Évora, and she is an associate member of the Centre for Research in Architecture Urbanism and Design, Faculty of Architecture (CIAUD), University of Lisbon. She has moderated and organized some conferences, participated in several international conferences and peer-reviewed publications, she has been member of several scientific comittees. She has PhD in Design since 2013, at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Lisbon; a Post-Graduated course in Public Space and Urban Regeneration in 1999, at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Barcelona; a Degree in Visual Arts ¿ Sculpture, in 1991, at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon. Her research areas are Visual Arts, Sculpture and Social and Participatory Art and Design. She is co-founder and co-organizer of the international conference "Cross Media Arts 2016 ¿ 1st International Conference on Social Arts and Transdisciplinarity", Eugénio de Almeida Forum, in Évora, 2016, and of a book with the same title (2018). In 2023 she co-organized the 2nd International Conference on Social Arts and Collaboration, at Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Lisbon. A book with the same title is published. In the academic context, she has participated, as an artist and teacher, in the Scholars Residency programme, at the McNally School of Fine Arts, Lasalle College of the Arts, in Singapore (2019). At the University of Évora, she coordinated the Up Start - Creative Industries project (2020-2023), an initiative of the Aga Khan Foundation in partnership with the University of Évora and promoted by the Partnerships for Impact Programme, Portugal Social Innovation, Portugal 2020, focusing on a particular synergy based on the areas of design for social innovation, heritage and management. She created the artistic project and exhibition Paths of Salt, in the context of the salt farmer community, Castro Marim, Algarve Portugal (2003-2005). She created the artistic project and exhibition Artistic Interactions with Cacela Velha, Cacela Velha, in the context of the fishing community, Algarve Portugal (2007-2009). She participated in the exhibition "Strategies of Belonging. A Social Art Practice", which resulted from an artist residency at the Iowa Ceramic Center and Glass Studio, with a later exhibition at CSPS Hall, Cedar Rapids, USA (2019), and in the exhibition "In The Middle - On the Edge: Contemporary Portuguese Art", at Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell College, Grinnell, USA (2008). She has co-coordinated the art and design project Mais Sul in partnership with Aga Khan Foundation Portugal and CHAIA (2017-2019), and the art and design project Catapulta in partnership in partnership with Aga Khan Foundation Portugal and CHAIA (2018-2019). She assumed the co-artistic direction of the exhibition "The Becoming of the Common" that resulted from "Mais Sul" and "Catapulta" projects in partnership with Aga Khan Foundation Portugal and CHAIA (2019).