MEMORANDUM · KNOWLEDGE · CREATION
A house of memory, knowledge and creation
CMJU-CEF develops projects that cross memory, photography, art, knowledge, nature and community.
CASA-MUSEU JAIME UMBELINO · CEF
A place of memory, creation and encounter.
Casa-Museu Jaime Umbelino · CEF – Centro de Experimentação da Fotografia is a cultural project that brings together heritage, memory, photography, contemporary art, knowledge, nature and community, in Foz do Arelho, in the municipality of Caldas da Rainha.
More than a museum space, the project affirms itself as a house open to discovery, experimentation and participation. A place where the past meets the present, where individual and collective histories dialogue with new forms of creation and where culture is built through sharing, learning and community involvement.
Memory as a starting point
The House-Museum starts from the life, work and legacy of Jaime Umbelino, writer, teacher and man deeply linked to the Portuguese language, books, popular culture and the history of the communities.
The preservation of his legacy is one of the fundamental axes of the project, through the valorization of his written work, the library and documentation center, the collections and the cultural memory associated with the territory.
The house is also a place of preservation and discovery of objects, stories and testimonies that help to understand the relationships between people, places and time.
The collections, the spaces of the house and the projects that are developed in it contribute to keep the memory alive, not as something immobile, but as a reality that continues to be interpreted, shared and enriched.
CEF - Experimenting with new ways of seeing
As part of the House-Museum, CEF – Photography Experimentation Centre is its dimension dedicated to photography, contemporary art and artistic creation.
It is a space of experimentation, research, exhibition and meeting, open to artists, creators, researchers, students and diverse audiences.
Through its galleries and exhibition halls, CEF hosts exhibitions, artistic projects, meetings, conversations, workshops, educational activities and other initiatives that promote direct contact with contemporary creation.
Photography takes a central place, but the work of the center also seeks to establish relationships with other artistic disciplines, cultural practices and forms of knowledge.
CEF aims to stimulate curiosity, encourage creative freedom and create opportunities to experiment with languages, develop ideas, share processes and establish new relationships between art and society.
A house of collections, books and stories
The collections and thematic nuclei of the House-Museum reveal different dimensions of material culture, memory and local identity.
The library and the Jaime Umbelino Documentation Centre preserve and value written work and documentary heritage, promoting access to knowledge and encouraging reading, research and discovery.
Casa das Bateiras, the universe of ethnographic collections, the objects and projects that integrate the space contribute to a plural reading of the territory and its histories.
The project seeks to establish links between heritage and contemporary times, recognizing that objects and documents gain new meanings when they are studied, contextualized and shared with different audiences.
Culture, education and community
The Jaime Umbelino House-Museum · CEF integrates an ecosystem of cultural and social initiatives promoted by ASSOCIATION F/SOS – PHOTOGRAPHY, SOLIDARITY AND SOCIAL WORKS.
In this context, the project articulates heritage preservation with contemporary creation, education, cultural intervention and the development of initiatives with social impact.
It is also in this perspective that the link is established to F/262 – International Photography Festival, which expands the dialogue between photography, artists, communities and territories, through a national and international programming.
While each initiative retains its own identity and goals, they all share a common vision: to make culture accessible, to stimulate critical thinking, to promote creation, and to build lasting relationships between art, knowledge, and society.
Preserve, create, share
The Casa-Museu Jaime Umbelino · CEF is born from the conviction that preserving the past is also creating conditions to imagine the future.
Between the house and the garden, books and collections, photography and contemporary art, knowledge and participation, the project builds a place where different forms of expression and experience can coexist and dialogue.
A place to save stories, discover perspectives, experiment with ideas and create new connections. A house rooted in memory and territory, but open to transformation, creativity and the world.
Preserving the past. Create in the present. Building the future.
CMJU-CEF 12 · 06 · 2026.
DESTINATION PROJECTS
Casa-Museu develops projects that cross memory, photography, art, knowledge, nature and community.
