Ana Mae Barbosa

Ana Mae Barbosa, Ana Mae Tavares Bastos Barbosa or still Anna Mae Tavares Bastos Barbosa (born July 17, 1936) is a professor, art educator, researcher and pioneer in postgraduate education in art teaching. In 2022, she received the award of professor emeritus from the University of São Paulo. She is the first Latin American to preside over the International Society for Education through Art (InSEA), an entity that brings together experts from around the world. She was also director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, University of São Paulo (MAC-USP).

Her trajectory was influenced by figures such as Paulo Freire and Noemia Varela, who were responsible for transforming her ways of thinking about education and art.

Ana Mae was part of the Escolinhas de Arte Movement (English free translation: Little Art Schools), initiated in the 1940s in Brazil and operating outside the public education system, which aimed to research new parameters for art education, guided by freedom of expression and considering the relevance of art in the educational process and in the formation of individuals.

In the 1980s, she systematized the Triangular Approach, a pedagogical proposal based on three axes for knowledge in art: reading (reading a work of art), making (making art) and contextualizing (knowing the context of the work).

Her works are frequently cited in studies on art education in Brazil.