The School of Arts at the Autonomous University of Lisbon is strengthening its international presence with the announcement of the finalists for the 63rd edition of the Bologna Children's Book Fair. Inês Viegas Oliveira, a faculty member at the institution, and Maria Giovanna Mura, a former student, are among the prestigious 2026 finalists, an achievement that places the school's artistic production among the best in the world in the visual literature and publishing market.

4,158 applications were received for the 2026 Illustrators Exhibition, totaling 20,790 illustrations from 95 countries and regions around the world. To select the winners, the international jury narrowed the gap to 317 finalists. The Bologna Children's Book Fair, which will celebrate its 63rd edition in 2026, will take place between April 13th and 16th.

The next day January 22, The School of Arts at the Autonomous University of Lisbon is holding an event. Open Day between 3:00 PM and 8:00 PM, at its facilities located at Rua Fernando Assis Pacheco, 207. The event was designed as an informal gathering, allowing visitors to get a close look at the school's dynamics and its educational offerings, focused on Postgraduate and Short Courses.

Throughout the afternoon, the program includes workshops, providing direct contact with the institution's areas of expertise. Visitors will also have the opportunity to visit the exhibition. “"Between surfaces"”, by the artist Filipa Tojal, which is still on display at the school, integrating the artistic experience into the visitor's journey.

The day will be marked by closeness and the sharing of experiences, with the presence of... teachers and former students who will be available to discuss courses and career paths in the arts. This relaxed environment aims to facilitate the clarification of doubts and dialogue between those who teach, those who study, and those seeking specialization.

Entry is free, but prior registration is requested via the following link. connection in order to ensure a better reception for all participants.

Artwork © Inês Viegas Oliveira

Applications are now open for the Postgraduate in Illustration, which begins in February 2026.

Coordinated by Luís Lima and Inês Viegas Oliveira, the Postgraduate Course in Illustration's main objective is to provide students with practical skills and conceptual tools for the creative exercise of illustration in its various variants. To this end, the School of Arts presents a multidisciplinary curricular plan, with a mostly practical focus, whose main components are units of illustration and field drawing techniques and technologies, to which are added units of writing, editorial design, editorial management , among others.

With an umbilical connection to the professional sector and the book market, the course also aims to stimulate students' contact with the world of work, presenting as teachers some of the most prestigious Portuguese illustrators such as Bernardo Carvalho (Planeta Tangerina), Inês Viegas Oliveira (Planeta Tangerina ), Carolina Celas (Orfeu Mini) or Catarinal Sobral (Orfeu Mini). In order to complement the study program, the course also offers a series of seminars and workshops in the areas of printing techniques, comics, animation, etc.

Applications can be submitted from this form.

The exhibition “Entre Superfícies”, by Filipa Tojal, opens on September 26th, at 6 pm, at the School of Arts of the Autonomous University of Lisbon and admission is free.

"Entre Superfícies" presents itself as a body of work that begins with painting and expands into sculpture and installation. Fragments and distinct materials—paper, glass, iron, photography—are brought together not by their origin, but by their shared attention to restrained gesture, tonalities, and the subtlety of presence.

Each element remains provisional, open, as part of an ongoing process. The fragility of the paper coexists with the strength of the metal, without one canceling out the other. The pictorial gesture isn't fixed on a single surface: it circulates between planes and layers, insisting on detail and repetition as a form of continuity.

Some of these works originated during the artistic residency In the Rubble (Artworks in partnership with the School of Arts of the Autonomous University of Lisbon), an experience that allowed for constant interaction with the materials, opening space for new interactions between languages. The exhibition thus proposes itself as a space of relationships: between gesture and material, organic and industrial, painting and object.

Filipa Tojal (1993, Freamunde, Porto) is a visual artist and researcher. She graduated in Fine Arts (Painting) from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto (FBAUP) and completed her Master's in Painting at the Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan, where she lived for four years. She has participated in artistic residencies in France, India, Indonesia, and Australia, and has presented her work, both in group and solo exhibitions, in several countries outside Portugal, notably the United States, China, and Japan. She is currently a doctoral candidate in Fine Arts at FBAUP, also collaborating with the Francisco Laranjo Artist Archive.