Bené Fonteles was born in 1953 in Bragança, State of Pará. He started working with art (visual art and music) in the beginning of the 1970s in Fortaleza, State of Ceará, where he worked as a reporter and art editor. He also worked as a reporter and art editor in Salvador, State of Bahia, and Cuiabá, State of Mato Grosso. From 1972 on, he has developed his work as a curator while doing his graphic projects in publications in São Paulo, Fortaleza, Salvador, Cuiabá, Rio de Janeiro and Brasília. He showed his work in several national and international shows and has his work in several important Brazilian collections. Since the 1970s, he has been a creativity workshop organizer. In the 1980s, he began to participate in the "Projeto de Consciência Ecológica e Educação Ambiental Através da Arte." Fonteles has been the coordinator of the Movement of Artists for Nature, the group that sponsors this project, since its official creation in 1987 at the International Biennial of São Paulo. Fonteles is one of the artists that has defended the rights of the Brazilian Indians. His songs have been supported by the stars of Brazilian music, such as Gilberto Gil, Egberto Gismonti, Teté Espíndola, Ney Matogrosso and Elba Ramalho.