In Graça Bordalo Pinheiro’s life there has always been great pleasure and heartfelt worry. Her pleasure is Art, which she discovered within her family’s tradition and deepened her knowledge having taken a degree at the Escola Superior de Belas Artes. Her worry is handicapped children and the way in which, through Art, they can integrate better into the World that surrounds them.
All through her career, Graça Bordalo Pinheiro has investigated the best methods to help visually impaired, brain paralysis or Down Syndrome children.
She took a degree at the Aurélio C. Ferreira Institute to be able to work with blind children, having also received scholarships from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Swedish Institute. She specialized in Teaching Techniques for Blind Children in Tomtebodaskolan, in Stockholm and Uppsala, and worked in the Portuguese Ministry of Education (Division of Special Education). At the beginning of the 80’s Graça was responsible for the Oficina de Apoio Didáctico at the Ministry of Education in Macau and worked on the programs of Visual Education for the Blind and partially sighted. She organized various workshops on Plastic Arts with handicapped children and gave many courses to teachers and students. Graça Bordalo Pinheiro also worked in the Inclusive Education System with the renowned pedagogue Calvet de Magalhães. She received a scholarship from the Portuguese Ministry of Culture and had an internship in the Atelier d’ Art du Verre and in Soluver SA in Leudelange – Luxembourg.
During all this she also took a course in Stage Design in the São Carlos Theatre under the direction of Alfredo Furiga, the Italian Stage Designer, and has also participated in exhibitions in various countries.